The Hour of Chaos: Part II
by S.S. Armageddon
Summary: As the heroes further progress in their mission to free the world from the Chaos clones, new questions arise: where did the mysterious creature Dyamisius come from? And what happens when the seal dividing two dimensions is broken?
1. Prologue

Sonic tossed and turned in his bed, muttering incomprehensible gibberish to himself. For the past few weeks it had been the same. He would be tired all morning, would go for his morning jog through the empty maintenance tunnels of The ARK, go through his daily routine, and then go to bed to be greeted by his nightmares.

He had no idea what triggered them in the first place. At the beginning of the summer of the year 2014, he began hearing voices in his dreams. _"Don't be afraid, boy,"_ they whispered. They spoke as one, but it was as though millions of people were speaking at once. _"I will give you everything you need to survive and more, and in return, you shall do my bidding. From now on..."_ the voice would emit a gurgling chuckle, _"your life will never be the same. You will be mine. Forever"_. Sonic's wrists would suddenly feel as though molten metal was being poured on top of them, and he would be jolted awake only to find himself in his room aboard the Space Colony ARK, where the Freedom Fighters had established their settlement two years ago. It was the last safe place for them to go.

_"Don't be afraid..."_ the voice whispered to him. Sonic's emerald eyes snapped open before the pain in his wrists began. He rolled over so that he was looking at the dimmed fluorescent lightbulbs running across the ceiling. From the steel table next to his bed came a soft, multicolored glow. Sonic turned his head to the side to look at the table. Laying neatly in a circle on top of it were the seven Chaos Emeralds, which Sonic kept near at all times unless Miles "Tails" Prower, one of the most brilliant minds among the Freedom Fighters and Sonic's close friend, needed them for research.

Sonic threw the wool bedsheets off of him and sat on the edge of his bed, pondering the dreams. What did they mean? Why was he getting them, and why now? Sonic rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, stood up, and walked over to the stainless steel sink in the corner of the room. As he placed his hand under a motion sensor under the sink, a small, wax paper cup slid out from a hole in the bottom of the sink and into his open palm. Sonic filled the cup with water from the sink and drank greedily, needing to refresh his parched mouth. When he was finished, Sonic tossed the cup into a small opening in the wall. A soft suctioning sound was heard as a vacuum sucked the cup down to a recycler somewhere in the underbelly of the ARK, where the cup would be sterilized, shredded, and formed into a new cup to be used once more.

Sonic spat in the sink disgustedly. In the two years that he had lived on the ARK, he still hadn't gotten used to the metallic, artificial taste of the water. Like everything else that the Freedom Fighters used, their water supply had to be recycled as well. Sonic was never really phased by the fact that he was drinking water that other people had pissed in before (and worse). The ARKs recycling plant was so meticulous that the water probably became cleaner every time that it ran through. Whatever waste that was separated from the water was packed into a pod and fired into the sun weekly, eliminating it completely.

Sonic went back to his bed and lay down. He didn't feel like sleeping again, even though he knew that the nightmares wouldn't return for the rest of that night. He often awoke in the middle of a dream, then went back to bed again and fell into a much more peaceful sleep. Sonic checked the digital clock that lay next to the Chaos Emeralds on his bedside table. It read 1:29. Sonic sighed. He had a lot to think about, but he knew he really should be getting some rest. After all, at four o'clock sharp, they were called for a meeting with the recon team currently down on Earth.

Sonic hated meetings. Being the second leader of his team, however, he had to pay rapt attention to the news, which was a hard thing to do that early in the morning, especially if he hadn't slept at all the previous night. Sonic was just glad that he wasn't Knuckles.

Knuckles the Echidna was the captain of Sonic's reconnaissance team, with Sonic being second in command and Tails being their technology supervisor. Sonic had been offered the position of team captain, but had turned it down on account of it being "more responsibility than he could handle".

"Yeah, okay," Captain Jeed of the Freedom Fighters marine corps had snorted. Knuckles volunteered for the position almost immediately afterwards.

After a group of Chaos Clones had slaughtered a squad of unwary Freedom Fighters down on Earth, Commander Jeed had all called for four recon teams to be assembled to watch the enemy's actions in a certain area at all times.

Each team had to have at least two members, with an optional technology supervisor with them. Sonic's team was named Team Sonic, much to the frustration of Knuckles. The other three teams were Team Dark, consisting of Rouge the Bat and Shadow the Hedgehog, Team Rogue, consisting of Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross, and Team Chaotix, consisting of Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon, and Charmy the Bee as a very unfit technology supervisor. Rouge was captain of Team Dark, Wave was captain of Team Rogue, and Vector was captain of Team Chaotix.

At the moment, Team Chaotix was somewhere in the Nevada desert, watching over a small settlement infested with Chaos Clones. They had received a distress signal coming from somewhere in the ruined town, but upon sending a return signal, they received no reply. They had contacted The ARK the previous day, requesting a meeting with the other recon teams and two squads of Freedom Fighter marines to ask what course of action they should take.

Sonic pulled the covers over him again and rolled over. Tomorrow was going to be a tough day. He didn't expect to see any action, but he would bring the Chaos Emeralds along just in case. He could never be too sure.

The Hour of Chaos: Part II


	2. Timing is Everything

From above, it would have appeared to be a small, black beetle crawling across an endless wasteland of dirt, dust, and rocks. From a closer view, it would have appeared as it actually was: a dark grey Subaru sedan following a seemingly endless path that wound through the desert wastes of Nevada.

"What's the time?" the driver asked. Her voice was a pitch deeper than the average female's tone, and carried a sort of smoky, erotic undertone. The passenger checked his watch.

"Three forty-seven," he said, turning his head to look out the window. Across the barren desert flats, he supposed he could see the top of the sun just barely peeking up from the earth, shedding a sliver of golden light across the desert.

"We'll be just on time then," the driver said, checking the rearview mirror nervously to see if they were being followed. They drove for a few more minutes when the passenger spoke up.

"We shouldn't be having the meeting this close to the town, it's dangerous. Vector's and idiot for choosing that spot," he hissed between his teeth.

"He swears it's safe. Says they've been using the place as an outpost for weeks and they haven't been noticed yet," the driver said, not taking her eyes off the road.

"They're one team. There's three more teams coming, plus two groups of marines," the passenger said, frowning. The driver said nothing.

As they approached a small brick building, the driver slowed the car down. At first glance there was no one else there, but when she looked carefully, she could see five vehicles parked alongside each other, each one covered in camouflage sheets. If it were the type of camouflage used back in 2008 they would have been spotted easily, but this was a new kind used by Freedom Fighter recon teams when they needed a place to camp and were out in the middle of an area filled with enemies. The outer layer of the material was created to change according to temperature, much like a chameleon. This made a sort of invisible cocoon around whatever it was covering, and if used properly, it could fool even an attentive marine. The recon teams often referred to the material as "HIPS", or "Hide In Plain Sight" cloth.

The driver pulled the sedan up alongside the other cars and turned off the engine while the passenger reached into the back seat and pulled out a large sheet of the HIPS camouflage material. They both exited the car quickly, and the passenger, an ebony hedgehog with an artificial right ear and a twisted scar running from his left cheekbone to his chin, fluidly threw the sheet of camouflage cloth over the car, spreading it out until it covered roughly the entire vehicle.

The pair strode towards the iron door quickly, looking around them to see if they were being watched. The hedgehog tried to open the door, but it was barred shut from the other side. "Locked," he said to his companion.

"Knock then," she said, crossing her arms.

The hedgehog knocked on the door. "Open up, it's Rouge and Shadow," he called. No answer. Shadow banged on the door harder. "I know someone's there, stop screwing around," he shouted.

"What's the password?" asked a small voice.

"Come on Charmy, just open up. It's us," Rouge said.

"Who's 'us'?" Charmy the Bee said from the other side of the door.

"Rouge and Shadow!" Shadow snapped.

There was a long pause from Charmy. Shadow was about to knock on the door again when the bee said, "I don't quite believe you. Say the password and I'll let you in."

"This is ridiculous," Shadow muttered.

"I don't make the rules, it was Vector's idea to have a password check!" Charmy squealed.

"Vector's a complete idiot, the Chaos Clones can't talk!" Rouge said angrily.

"Password please," Charmy said. "I don't see what the big deal is, just say it and I'll let you in."

"Fine, Eclipse Cannon," Rouge sighed.

"Wrong!" Charmy laughed.

"Open the damn door!" Shadow shouted, grabbing the door handle and pulling with all his might.

"Say please?"

"Open the damn door _please_, before I slit your throat," Shadow snapped. To both his and Rouge's surprise, they heard the sound of a metal bolt being pulled back and the door opened slowly to reveal a tall, heavily built crocodile.

"Sorry about that fellas, he was just playing," Vector the Crocodile said, standing aside to let them in.

"We aren't in the mood for games at the moment," Rouge muttered. Then she frowned at Vector. "We saw five cars outside. There should have been six," she said.

"Knuckles and his team are late," Vector said, checking his watch. It was five minutes after four.

Rouge and Shadow exchanged glances. "Well we might as well get started without them. They never pay attention anyway," Rouge said.

"Tails does," Vector said defensively.

"Yeah, well he's the only one in that group with any brains," the bat said, looking around the room.

Espio the Chameleon stood in the center of the room, bent over an oak table completely covered with papers.

The remaining members of the Babylon Rogues, Wave and Storm, sat in one corner. Jet had sacrificed himself in a battle six years earlier to save them, Tails, Knuckles, and Vanilla the Rabbit's family.

The two squads of Freedom Fighter marines were intermingled, muttering amongst themselves. More than half of them were human. Most likely troops that had been in the forgotten military unit, GUN.

"Okay, I think we can all spare one recon team," Vector said, clapping his hands together, "so let's get started."

Espio pushed a pile of notes off of a hand drawn map of the small town the distress signal had come from. It looked very accurately drawn to Rouge. "This is a map of the town, drawn by me," the chameleon said. He pointed to a small, red dot drawn on top of one of the buildings in the northern part of the town. "This is where we pinpointed where the distress signal came from. Now I've snuck into the town to check it out. Believe me when I say that the place is infested with Chaos Clones. I was able to get close enough to the building so that I could see it, and it definitely looks like somebody is there. It's a small bakery. The windows have been boarded up, and the door looks like it's barricaded from the inside. I wouldn't have been able to get inside without being noticed, but I definitely know that there is something out there," he said. Espio handed the map to Vector and stood aside so the croc could speak.

"We only received one distress signal from that building. We sent at least four return signals before we were about to give up. Then, we were inspired to keep on trying when Espio found the barricaded building. We sent five more distress signals after that, but nothing was sent back. There is some chance that the survivors could have been killed right after they sent the distress signal–" Espio suddenly cut Vector off.

"But I don't think so," the chameleon said. "The barricade seemed intact, and there were dozens of Chaos Clones still crowded around the building it was almost as if they were waiting for something," he said, looking at every face in the room, his yellow eyes seeming to scan their emotions.

For a few moments everyone was silent. Then a metallic banging noise came from outside. Charmy whizzed over to the door. "Password?" he squeaked.

Espio rolled his eyes and strode over to the door, sliding the iron bolt back.

"Thanks," Knuckles said, entering the room nervously, tailed closely by Sonic and Tails. "Sorry that we're late, we had some time waking Sonic up," he blinked. Nobody said anything.

After a moment Tails spoke up. "So how's the meeting going?" he asked, looking around at everybody. In the six years that had passed, no one would argue that Tails had changed the most out of all of them. Sure, Charmy had gotten a bit chubby and his voice had deepened (if only by a bit), but that was nowhere near as drastic as the changes that had happened to Tails.

Miles Prower was no longer an innocent kitsune. He was a young fox now, and like all foxes, the round nubs of his teeth had developed into long, sharp fangs, giving him a devilish and slightly self-assured look every time he smiled. The fourteen-year-old fox was now taller than many of the anthropomorphic Freedom Fighters now, standing at least three feet and five inches, as opposed to the average height of three-foot-three among the other anthropomorphs. The tuft of hair on his forehead had grown long, and often drooped down over his face. His shoulders had also broadened as well.

"Fine until you interrupted," Wave said from the corner, brushing imaginary dust off of her shoulders. Tails just shrugged and took a vacant seat.

"Glad you guys could make it," Vector said, nodding at Knuckles.

"Yeah, me too," the red echidna grunted, scratching his head. He gestured for them to continue with one of his spiked paws.

"Right," Espio said. "Anyway, I was just finishing telling everyone how we figured that there must be at least one survivor in that little town, because I checked the building the distress signal was coming from out and it still looked intact. Sonic, wake up".

"M'kay".

Vector stepped forward. "So," he said, "I thought up a plan. Espio will lead one squad of marines up to the building from the north. You marine guys will be hiding under a sheet of camo cloth so nobody sees you. Once you get to the back of the building, you wait there for Espio to signal you guys. Got that?" Vector asked.

The marines nodded.

"Good. Wave, you and Storm have your Extreme Gear like I asked?"

"I didn't forget," the swallow said, gesturing to the rucksack at her feet. Wave had developed a new model of Extreme Gear that could fold into itself, allowing the rider to carry it around more easily.

"Okay, great. I want you two to circle the sky above the town. Do you have those stun grenades?"

"Uh-huh".

"When I signal you on your communicator," Vector said, "I need you to drop those into any packs of clones around the building. Don't drop them near the back though, or they might hit Espio and his group". Wave gave Vector the thumbs up.

The crocodile turned to Rouge and Shadow. "Now when all this happens, I need you to be ready outside the town with your car. Now Rouge, you're the best driver here, and Shadow, you're the best shooter here. I need you to work together and drive through town and get to the bakery as fast as you can. When you start driving, the second group of marines will swarm the town, killing all the stunned clones that they can. I'm trusting that Espio and his guys will have gotten the survivors out of the building by the time you reach the bakery. They'll put any survivors in your car, and we need you to get to the rendezvous point with them. Got that?" Vector asked.

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other. "Sounds simple enough," Rouge said.

"So where do we fit in all this?" Knuckles asked, frowning.

"Right here. I need you guys to take the GUN trucks that our marines brought and get to the two squads out of there. Charmy and I'll be following in our car. We'll pick up Espio, so you don't have to worry about him. Does everyone understand?" Vector said, cracking his knuckles.

"So... before we start this, I just want to ask one thing," Wave said suddenly.

"Go ahead," Vector said.

"Okay then. All this for a group of survivors we don't even know exists?" she asked, raising one feathered eyebrow.

Vector sighed. "I know it sounds crazy, but if we time this right, it'll be cake. Remember, _timing is everything_ in this mission," Vector said, looking at everyone in the room seriously.

Sonic raised his hand. "I didn't think we were gonna be fighting, I thought this was just a meeting," he said.

"It's a battle meeting Sonic, of course there's going to be fighting," Rouge snickered. Sonic rubbed his eyes and sighed. He was still tired.

Everybody in the room jumped as another heavy knock came at the door. Espio and Vector glanced at each other nervously. Everyone was accounted for here. Nobody else should be arriving. Charmy buzzed forward and was about to call "password" when Vector clamped one meaty hand over the bee's head, stifling his yell.

Vector motioned for everyone to be quiet, then gestured towards a ladder leaning against the wall under a steel hatch in the ceiling. "Go up and see who it is first," he whispered.

Espio nodded and camouflaged himself, seemingly disappearing. Everybody watched the ladder rock as an invisible Espio nimbly leapt up the rungs. The hatch in the ceiling creaked open, allowing the cool morning air to rush into the hot, stuffy room.

Outside, Espio crawled softly to the edge of the roof and peered down. To his utter horror, four Chaos Clones stood outside, staring at the door motionlessly. Suddenly one of them savagely hurled itself at the iron door, causing the metal to bend dangerously. Inside, Storm and Wave drew their Extreme Gear out of the rucksack. Shadow drew a silver .45 cal pistol from the inside of his black windbreaker jacket, all of the marines flicked the safeties off on their rifles, and everyone else took up a fighting stance.

Espio turned around and was about to hurry back down into the room when something caught his eye. Every single Chaos Clone that had been inside the town was rushing over the small plain of desert between the town and the outpost, planting their fists in the ground and swinging their feet forward, almost apelike.

The chameleon's jaw dropped, and in that instant he forgot all about his camouflage and reverted back to his normal color. If he could make an accurate estimation, he guessed that they had less than a minute before the Chaos Clones crashed into the outpost. The brick walls were strong, but under a full onslaught of creatures as powerful as that, they would be dust in a matter of minutes.

Suddenly Espio realized that they had been tricked. There were no survivors at all. Somehow, the "mindless" Chaos Clones had managed to find a way to send a distress signal from the town and make it appear that there were survivors. It was a trick, all to draw them out. Perhaps the clones had known that the Chaotix had been there all along, perhaps they had just figured it out that day. But one thing was certain: if they all stayed there for much longer, none of them were going to survive.

_Oh_, Espio thought blankly. _Oh, this is _not_ good_.

--

**A/N:** I apologize if this story doesn't make sense to some readers. I strongly suggest that you read the first "Hour of Chaos" if you need an explanation as to what the heck this is about. I will summarize the first story in later chapters, but if you want more detail, please read the first one. The rating of this story MAY go up, but probably not. Please review!


	3. A Slimy Escape

"What the hell was that?" Knuckles muttered, quickly stepping away from the door. Outside, one of the Chaos Clones slammed its entire body against the door, making the building shake.

Espio came flying down the ladder, almost slipping on the last rung. "We have a really big problem," he said.

"What is it?" Vector asked, flinching as the door bent inwards even more.

"Chaos Clones," Espio said. "A lot of them. I don't know how, but they figured out we were here".

Vector blinked in surprise. "Okay then. Sonic, I didn't want to put you in too much danger, but since you can go super I think you'll be okay. If you can run into that town and grab any of those survivors–"

"Vec, don't you get it?" Espio cried. "There were no survivors! I don't know how, but those things tricked us into calling a meeting, then decided to try and kill us all at once".

Vector shook his head, refusing to believe it. "No way, they aren't that smart. They're like animals," he said.

"One way or the other, we have to leave," Tails said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him. "Is there a back door to this place Vector?" he asked the crocodile.

Vector scratched his scaly head. "Uh, no. We didn't even think of that," he said. The war had given him many scars and an acute soldier's sense during battles, but he was still the same bumbling old detective as he was six years ago.

_Bang!_ The door shuddered violently once more.

Tails grimaced. "Well is there any other way out of here?" he asked, slightly exasperated with Vector's foolishness.

Before Vector could answer, Charmy screamed over from the corner of the room, "There's some kind of tunnel over here!"

"What do you mean, tunnel?" Espio frowned, hurrying over to the sewer drain underneath the sink in the corner. The sink had no pipes to bring the used water through, so there was an opening in the bottom. Underneath the sink, there was a large grate in the floor to act as a sewer drain. Beyond the sewer grate was a wide tunnel, big enough for even Storm to fit through.

Espio wrinkled his scaly nose at the smell, but he knew it was the only way out if they wanted to escape in one piece. "Okay, I guess this is our exit route," he said. "Somebody help me pull this thing up, will you?" he called over his shoulder.

Wave, Vector, and Knuckles all hurried forward to help the chameleon pull the grate up out of the floor. After a few moments of struggling, all four of them were able to rip the sewer grate right out of the cement floor. Knuckles rolled the drain cover over to Tails, who brushed off a flake of concrete that was still attached to it and set it down lightly on the floor.

"After you," Vector sighed, motioning for Wave to climb in first. She didn't protest, and slid feet first into the slimy tunnel without hesitation. She was closely followed by Espio, whose scales immediately darkened into a sickly green color to match the slime on the tunnel walls. Vector, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Charmy, Storm, the two groups of marines, and Tails followed one by one afterward.

Tails frowned when he saw that Sonic was staying behind. "Sonic, come on!" he cried, motioning for the hedgehog to follow him.

"Tell everyone else I'll meet them at the rendevous point. I'll try and slow these things down a bit," Sonic said. "You guys just go, you know I'll be fine". Tails hesitated, but when Sonic shouted "Go on, go!" at him once more, the fox slid down after everyone else.

The tunnel was much darker and slimier than Tails had initially expected. He heard muffled shouts of the others below him. For a moment he wondered what was the matter, then the slime became so thickly caked on the walls that Tails' gloves, shoes, and fur slipped on the green muck, and with a yell Tails was sent sliding down the tunnel as though he were on a waterslide at a Six Flags amusement park. The tunnel twisted sharply to the right, snapping Tails' head to the left and cracking his skull on the slimy inside of the tunnel. Tails blinked rapidly, hoping to clear the stars from his line of vision before he reached where the pipes lead. The tunnel made three more sharp twists, bent upwards for a brief moment, and then plummeted down once more before Tails finally reached the end of the pipe- and the beginning of the sewers themselves.

Tails flew out of the pipe like a bullet from a gun and landed on top of a pile of raw sewage and groaning Freedom Fighters. He heard Vector groan underneath him.

"Is everyone okay? Nothing broken?" he asked.

There were grunts and mumbles of "kinda", "sorta", "I never should have come here", and "screw you", but from the grunts and groans, Vector discerned that everyone was chiefly okay. Slowly, everybody rolled off of one another and stood to their feet, trying the best to wipe the slime and filth away from their faces and clothes.

"Ugh, what is that smell?" Wave asked, grimacing and holding a hand over her beak.

"That would be shit. There's lots of it down here," Shadow grumbled, shaking slime and muck out of the barrel of his pistol.

"Alright, we made it this far at least. Is everyone here?" Vector asked, peering through the gloom at all the faces.

"Everyone except Sonic," Tails said, wiping old sewage off his glove on the wall. When he took his hand away from the wall, he saw that he had merely ground more grime into the cloth. "Sonic stayed back to try and slow the clones down. He'll be okay, he's got all of the Chaos Emeralds," Tails explained to the crocodile.

"Okay then. I think that we should all split up into our separate teams and try to find our own way out of this place. If we're followed, it'd be better to spread those clones out than have all of them follow us," Vector said.

Everyone nodded and mumbled their approval. In moments, every team had assembled, and they were all heading down tunnels branching off in all different directions to try to find their own way out.

* * *

Sonic willed all seven Chaos Emeralds to appear, floating in a circle around his head. It was lucky that he had remembered to bring them along with him. Without his super form, he would have had to run. He would be no match for a force like the one that was attacking the building then.

By then the other clones from the small town had already reached the building. Sonic could hear them on the roof, ripping chunks of cement away with their bare hands. The Chaos Clones at the door persisted in trying to smash it down.

_Doom! Doom! DOOM!_ With one final crash, the door was sent flying across the room. Sonic was barely able to dodge it in time. The apparent leader of that particular pack bounded into the room, landing in front of Sonic on all fours. Its bulbous green eyes scanned the entire room. It ignored Sonic at first, but when it moved towards the open sewer pipe and Sonic jumped in front of it, its eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Now I don't quite understand this," said Sonic, grinning. "You fellas go through all this trouble to trick us into coming down here, and for what? You hungry? Do you eat us or something? I don't really know how that could happen, I mean, you don't even have freakin' mouths for Christ's– woah there, QuickDraw!" Sonic laughed, jumping over its huge fist as it took a swing at him. Another clone lunged at him, attempting to snatch him out of midair, but Sonic lifted both feet and drop-kicked it in the face before its gigantic paws could close around his body.

Sonic rolled backwards, concentrating as hard as he could on the source of energy in the center of each Chaos Emerald. In moments, he felt that energy slowly begin to drain from the emeralds and surge into his own body. Suddenly Sonic felt as though pure adrenaline was flowing through his veins. Golden flames leapt up from his quills, and the irises of his eyes turned from emerald green to red-orange. Chaos Energy flowed between his spikes like an updraft of hot air, causing them to float in the air almost mystically. Sonic bent his knees slightly and raised his fists in a fighting position. "Come on, guys. Let's do this," he said, grinning.

The Chaos Clone that he had drop-kicked let out a low gurgling noise and leapt at him again, this time pulling back its fist to punch him. Faster than the eye could see, Sonic leapt into the air, hitting the clone in the neck with a reverse roundhouse and sending it flying into the far wall. The leader of the clones swiped at Sonic's feet, but hit nothing but air as Sonic nimbly jumped over its fist. It swung again at Sonic's face, but the golden hedgehog bent backwards slightly, grinning as the fist missed his nose by less than an inch.

"My turn!" Sonic said, flipping over the clone's head and landing behind it. The clone whirled around, but before it could strike out, Sonic's hand swiped through the air and a burst of white Chaos Energy leapt from his fingertips to the clones neck.

It stood there for a moment or two, unmoving. The other clones stopped pounding their fists on the ground expectantly and stared at Sonic, their green eyes completely expressionless. Then, as the leaders head slid from its neck and fell to the floor, the other clones flew into a violent rage. _Uh-oh_, Sonic thought.

Sonic ducked as a clone swung both its fists at his head, attempting to crush the hedgehogs skull between both of them. Sonic rolled backwards and back flipped onto his feet to avoid four more Chaos Clones as they lunged at him, smashing their fists into the ground where Sonic had been standing. Before they could move again, Sonic, gathered a sphere of Chaos Energy in both hands, pulled them back, then hurled it at all four of the raging clones. The energy entered their bodies, apparently harmlessly, but after a few moments their eyes began to bulge and their bodies began to thrash wildly. In seconds, all four of the Chaos Clones had been reduced to four puddles of steaming liquid on the floor.

Sonic whirled around to see at least a dozen Chaos Clone sliding into the sewers as though they were liquid snakes. Sonic leapt over to the tunnel opening, gathered a supercharged ball of energy in his fist, and hurled it down the tunnel. The slimy pipe lead the energy through to the sewers at the speed of light, disintegrating any clones that were sliding down the pipe at the same time. However, despite the fact that Sonic had stopped another group of them from entering the sewers, at least twenty other Chaos Clones had been able to slip down unnoticed before, and had split up in search of the fleeing Freedom Fighters.

Sonic turned to see that the clones had finished tearing a gaping hole in the ceiling, and were scuttling down the walls like mutant insects. Sonic's eyes narrowed. There were too many of them to defeat on his own, even in his super form. But he did have one last trick up his sleeve that would bide the others more time. Sonic raised one glowing hand in the air as if he were commanding the clones to stop their assault. The hand began to glow with a golden light, and a few of the clones quailed, fearing another attack.

"Chaos Control!" Sonic cried, and the energy leapt from his hand into the air, forming a golden dome around the entire area aboveground.

There were two types of Chaos Control. The first could be used to warp to any place that the holder of the emeralds could think of. The second type of Chaos Control could be used to drastically slow the passage of time in a certain area for a short while, or until the holder of the emeralds decided to stop the effects. Sonic has used the second form of Chaos Control.

Sonic grinned at one clone, who was frozen in midair with its fist pulled back. No doubt it was attempting to catch him off guard while he was charging his own "attack". Sonic shrugged and turned back towards the sewer pipe, contemplating whether or not he should follow the others and make sure they were safe. After a moment he decided not to follow them and to head toward the rendezvous point on his own. _They can handle themselves_, Sonic told himself. _Plus, if they meet any Chaos Clones Knuckles can just absorb their punches with that thick skull of his_. Sonic chuckled, angled himself towards the hole the Chaos Clones had ripped in the ceiling, and shot into the sky with a trail of golden light at his heels.

* * *

"How much further until you think we find an exit?" Shadow grunted, climbing over a pile of filth laying in his way.

"I don't know. Half an hour maybe?" Rouge said. She stopped and whistled shrilly, then turned her head so that she could pick up the echoes more easily.

"Do you have to do that every ten minutes? You could attract clones if they found their way down here," Shadow grunted, shaking murky, brown water off of his shoes.

"Echolocation, Shadow. If there's an exit nearby, I'll know," Rouge explained, scowling at her partner. Shadow shrugged.

"Well, if you put it that way, I don't mind it," he said.

Rouge seemed to be thinking for a moment. After a short while, she motioned for Shadow to follow her into the dark. "There's something over here, come on," she said. She stepped forward, but Shadow stopped her.

"Wait, it's lighter in _that_ direction," he said, pointing in the opposite direction. "Shouldn't we head towards the light instead of going in blindly? That could be a Chaos Clone for all you know!" he said.

"Just trust me. It isn't a Chaos Clone, and I swear that there's something in that direction. A door or a sewer cover or something," Rouge said.

The black hedgehog looked longingly at the lighter end of the tunnel, but he turned and followed Rouge. She had better instincts than he did in situations like this. Shadow wouldn't have been at all surprised if Rouge told him that, being an ex thief, she had done things such as this many times to escape the long arm of the law.

They continued down the slippery tunnel for at least fifteen minutes more, with Rouge warning Shadow whenever they came to a pile of smelly refuse that he didn't see in the darkness, and with Shadow warning Rouge that he would wring her neck if she was wrong about sensing a door or sewer cover. At length, Rouge stopped and tapped her heel against the floor.

In the thick darkness, Shadow heard nothing, but Rouge's sensitive bat ears picked up even the slightest of echoes, even if they were thirty meters away. For a moment the echoes hit nothing but the tunnel walls, then they suddenly hit something up above. Rouge grabbed Shadow's arm and dragged him along excitedly. "Come on, I think we're close," she said.

They jogged along for a few minutes before Rouge stopped and whistled again to see how far away they were.

"Well? How much longer?" Shadow asked. Rouge pointed upwards and grinned when her finger touched slimy, cold metal instead of the bricks that made up the rest of the tunnel.

"We're right under it. Come on, help me push," Rouge said, placing both hands under the sewer cover. Shadow followed suit, and in a moment the two had pushed the cover away, allowing fresh morning air to pour into the dark, smelly tunnels of the sewers. Luckily for them, the sun hadn't fully risen yet, allowing their eyes to slowly adjust to the brightness of the early morning.

"I'll give you a boost," Shadow said, cupping his hands and kneeling down. Rouge nodded in thanks, put one boot in his hands, and let him help her climb out of the sewer and into the barren desert of Nevada.

Rouge reached down into the sewer and helped Shadow climb out before turning to see the building that required the accessible sewer. It was no more than a small shack, with broken windows and torn screens. Above the front door, Rouge could make out a faded sign reading _Merv's Meats_. She shook her head sadly. "Hillbillies," she muttered under her breath.

"What?" Shadow asked, wiping grime off one of his Air Shoes.

"Nothing," Rouge said. Then she turned back to Shadow. "What's the time?" she asked.

Shadow pushed back his black and red wristband to look at his watch. He frowned and tapped the face, then shook his head in defeat. "Broken," he said. "Some crap must have gotten into it or something. My guess is that it's about four forty-five, maybe four thirty".

Rouge nodded and unclipped a small device from her belt. She flicked on a switch on its side, and two dots appeared on the small, digital screen on the device. The red dot showed their location, and a larger green dot showed the location of their shuttle, the _Avenger_. They had landed the _Avenger_ next to all of the other teams' shuttles. They had all planned to rendezvous there if something went wrong and they got separated. _Well, something did go wrong, and we did get separated,_ Rouge thought. They would wait for everyone else there.

On the screen, a small, red arrow was blinking next to the red dot. The arrow was pointing East, when the _Avenger_ and the other shuttles were located to the northwest. Rouge turned around, watching the screen until the arrow was pointing directly at the green dot representing their shuttle.

"We pointing in the right direction?" Shadow asked, stretching his legs.

"I think so. You mind giving me a lift?"Rouge asked, turning to Shadow.

"I don't _want_ to, but I will if I _have_ to," Shadow muttered. He stood in front of Rouge and let her climb onto his back with her arms around his neck, then kicked his Air Shoes against the ground and sped off towards the _Avenger_, leaving a trail of dust floating in the air behind him.

* * *

"Jesus, where have you guys been, we've been waiting for at least half an hour!" Wave cried in exasperation as Shadow and Rouge skidded to a halt in the middle of a semicircle of The ARKs small space shuttles.

"Yeah. I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but you guys sure took your time," Vector said, watching Shadow put Rouge down. "We all came out of the sewers in the outskirts of that little town. We grouped together again and snuck back to the cars". Vector turned to Sonic and grinned. "That was pretty cool how you froze those clones like that," he said.

"Chaos Control, Vec. It works wonders," Sonic, his quills once again blue, called down from his perch on top of Team Sonic's shuttle, the _Iron Fist_. He jumped down and landed lightly on the dirt next to Shadow and Rouge. "So what happened to you two? You take a wrong turn somewhere?"

Shadow glared at Rouge. "Her echolocation," he said, jabbing his thumb at her over his shoulder as he walked up the ramp into the _Avenger_. "It _really_ helped us out down there".

"Hey, don't complain. That was the closest exit that there was!" Rouge said indignantly, following him into the shuttle.

"Says you".

Vector ignored their bickering and trudged up the ramp into the _Silent Ghost_, their shuttle. Vector had always thought it was an odd name, but they really had no other choice. Every other shuttle had been taken already.

The crocodile patted Espio on the shoulder before sitting down in the pilot's seat and strapping himself in. The chameleon stared at Vector for a moment, observing the changes in Vector. His sharp-toothed smile had disappeared long ago, and his lively and somewhat cocky yellow eyes had lost much of their energetic light. He seemed tired and old now, despite the fact that he was only twenty-six years of age. This wasn't the Vector that he once knew.

That wasn't to say that everyone else hadn't changed. Espio, who once practiced martial arts merely to stay fit and as a favorite pastime, now went through a rigorous daily workout in the ARKs newly established training area. The chameleons limbs and grown rather bulky and muscular by now. The tip of Espio's horn had also been chipped off a few years back in a battle, and it still pained him up to that day.

Knuckles still bore a gruesome, white scar under his left arm shaped like an "A". It was something to remember an old enemy by. His hands had also grown bigger, and he had also developed stronger, thicker arms over the years, much like his ancestors.

Sonic, on the other hand, had grown a bit taller and a bit skinnier. But Espio knew that Sonic's size belied his strength. Although thin, the blue hedgehog possessed a lot of wiry strength, and in his super form he was next to invincible. Indeed, Sonic was one of the greatest of all the Freedom Fighters.

"What?" Vector asked suddenly.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just thinking," Espio said, suddenly aware that he had been staring at the crocodile the entire time. He sighed and buckled himself into the copilot's seat, then glanced at Vector again. "We ready to go?" he said, his low voice resonating his anxiety about still being in a desert full of Chaos Clones.

"Yeah, sure," Vector muttered. He fired the thrusters on the _Silent Ghost_ and angled the control yoke forward, following the _Avenger _up into the sky.

Sonic watched the other shuttles take off before hurrying up the ramp into the _Iron Fist_. Knuckles was sitting in the pilot's seat, and Tails was monitoring the engines in the back of the ship. If they weren't cooled properly, the thrusters on some of the shuttles were known to explode. Despite the many upgrades Tails had developed for the shuttles, they were still far from perfect.

Sonic strapped himself into the copilot's seat and watched as the other ships slowly lifted off the ground and began to fly off into the morning sky. Knuckles waited until Sonic was situated before igniting the thrusters on the _Iron Fist_.

"Everything check out back there, Tails?" Knuckles said into a headset he had pulled over his broad echidna skull.

"We're good to go," the fox said into his own headset.

Knuckles eased the _Iron Fist _off the ground, then angled the ship upward, propelling the shuttle towards the sky.

Sonic sighed and watched the pink morning sky slowly fade into the blackness of space. Then he turned to Knuckles and raised his eyebrows. "Well that didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped," he said.

--

**A/N:** To Frozen Nitrogen, I hoped the character descriptions are somewhat what you were looking for. They may have seemed a little out of place, since I put them in after I had originally finished this chapter, but I hope they worked okay. And to Dee (if you're reading this, that is) I don't know if it'll be a SonicxBlaze story. I hadn't planned on it being one. Please review!


	4. The ARK

From afar it would have appeared as a meteorite hovering above the atmosphere of Earth, its surface pitted with holes and craters that were home to thousands of microscopic organisms. But then the viewer would notice that it couldn't possibly be a meteorite, as it was cloven perfectly in half. Then, if the viewer came closer to the so called "meteorite", they would see lights dotting the object, and thousands of tiny radio antennae bristling from the metallic underside. After that, they would most surely see a gigantic, metal spike jutting out from the underside of the meteorite, with chrome plating on the sides of the spike.

This was no meteorite. This was the Space Colony ARK, the first space colony built by man. In the glory days of the giant space station, it was used mainly as a medical research lab. Indeed, The ARK was where Professor Gerald Robotnik, grandfather of Ivo Robotnik, developed the Ultimate Life Form during his research in the secret of immortality.

The ARK had everything the body needed- and nothing the soul wanted. Although it had gargantuan storage rooms, comfortable living quarters, incredibly high-tech security, a built-in recycling plant, and an entire floor filled with soil and irrigation pipes so that crops could be grown, everything was cold and metallic. The station was lit by long strips of compact fluorescent lightbulbs running across the ceiling, giving everything an emotionless, blank hue. The only real colors that were regularly seen were the green pipes, in which the ARK carried away the nuclear waste produced by the power core, the red "warning" tape covering doors that led to nothing but deep space, and the turquoise health pods that were often sealed in glass tubes on the walls. The pods contained a blue gel that, when smeared over a wound, would immediately enhance the rate at which the wounded person's blood would coagulate while at the same time covering the wound with a protective membrane resistant to viruses, disease, and infection.

At the moment, Knuckles the Echidna was rubbing a thin layer of this gel on a long scrape running from his wrist to his elbow. He had gotten it after being hurled down a tunnel by a Chaos Clone in the sewers back in Nevada. It was just a small scrape for Knuckles, but it had already gotten in the way during a sparring match with Amy. The gel would just accelerate the healing.

Amy had beaten him in that match, but Knuckles had insisted to Tails that the scrape had prevented him from properly blocking a number of blows. Tails had just rolled his eyes at Knuckles.

Amy was no longer the damsel in distress, as she had often been in the past. She had begun receiving advanced martial arts training from Espio, Rouge and Knuckles since before the Freedom Fighters established their base on the ARK. Now she was able to keep up with even Sonic's speed in a fight. After being easily beaten by Amy during their first sparring match, Sonic had begun taking martial arts lessons as well. Like all of them, Amy had changed over the years. She had grown a bit taller, now standing about three feet and four inches, making Sonic a bit jealous. Her obsession with Sonic was also ancient history by now. Somewhere along the line Amy had begun to understand that they just weren't meant for each other, and had up and left the blue hedgehog alone. Which, of course, was perfectly fine by Sonic.

Knuckles' thoughts were interrupted as a small buzzer went off on his bedside table. Seconds later, a food tray wrapped in cellophane slid out of a small chute in the bottom of the wall and came to a rest in the middle of Knuckles' room.

Knuckles scowled. Every meal in The ARK was the same as this. To him, it felt as though he were being slopped food like a prisoner. Of course, he could always leave his room and join somebody else in their quarters to eat. But nobody seemed to appreciate that much, so Knuckles stayed in his room to eat.

The echidna sighed and placed the small container that held the healing gel on his bedside table before striding over to the lunch tray, picking it up and peeling the cellophane wrapping off it before tossing the ball of rolled up plastic into the recycling chute in the wall. Knuckles sat down on his bed to examine what he would be eating.

Corn. That seemed to be a staple in the average Freedom Fighter's diet. Apparently the agricultural level of The ARK was the perfect climate for growing corn. They ate it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. True, it would sometimes be made into different things: corn bread, creamed corn, corn on the cob, and other things that Knuckles had never even heard of before. For lunch and dinner they were sometimes given a slab of beef or chicken, if cattle or poultry had been collected from Earth that month. There was also broccoli and spinach thrown in there regularly, but it was mostly just corn.

For lunch that day, Knuckles had gotten a large chunk of corn bread, a carton of milk, a small pouch full of grape juice, and a small bowl of rice. _Corn and rice_, he thought. _Odd combination, but whatever_. Knuckles leaned against the cold, metal wall and knocked on it with his large fist. After a moment, Shadow's muffled voice floated through the wall into Knuckles room.

"What?" the black hedgehog grunted grumpily.

"Nothing," Knuckles said. "What did they give you for lunch today?" Knuckles heard Shadow hawk deeply and spit, probably into the recycler.

"Corn," he said after a long pause. "I'm so tired of this shit. It's the same every day. Corn bread, creamed corn. When will they stop it with the goddamn corn?"

Knuckles grimaced. Shadow was in one of his moods again. He didn't ask what else Shadow had on his plate, careful not to provoke the hedgehog even further. "Well, it's better than nothing," he dared to say. Shadow just grumbled under his breath.

* * *

Sonic hurried down the brightly lit corridors of The ARK, carrying his food tray along with him. The blue hedgehog was munching greedily on the slab of corn bread he had, and despite the fact that he had picked up his food tray less than a minute ago, it was already empty.

Sonic's eyes scanned the digital numbers glowing softly on the front of each door. _Two hundred eleven, two hundred twelve, two hundred thirteen, two hundred fourteen- ah, here we are_, Sonic thought, stopping in front of room two hundred fifteen and knocking on the door.

"Hang on a sec," a voice said from inside. Sonic heard shuffling sounds from inside, then the door opened slightly and Tails peered out at Sonic. "Uh, hi," he said tiredly, rubbing his sleepy eyes with the back of one hand.

"'Uh, hi'" Sonic said, playfully mocking Tails' clueless look. Tails grinned and shook his head, accidentally causing his bangs to fall in front of his face. "Whaddya mean, 'hi' let me in!" Sonic grinned, shoving the last of the corn bread into his mouth.

"Sorry about that, I stayed up all last night trying to figure out these things," he said, looking back into his room at the seven Chaos Emeralds lined up in a row on the long, steel table in the middle of the room. Then he turned back to Sonic. "Do you want them back, or did you just want to say hi?"

"Just wanted to hang out. It gets a bit lonely when you're stuck in a metal room all by yourself," Sonic said, running one hand through the quills on his spikes, which had grown about six inches longer over the years. Tails nodded and opened the door, letting Sonic in. The blue hedgehog entered the room slowly, letting his gaze travel from the Chaos Emeralds, to a pile of scrap machinery in a corner, then to the still wrapped styrofoam lunch tray laying on the floor. Sonic tossed his own tray into the recycler before turning to Tails with a frown on his face. "You haven't eaten yet," he said.

"I'm not that hungry right now," Tails replied, plopping himself down at his desk and pulling a pair of magnification goggles over his eyes to look at the sapphire colored Chaos Emerald.

Sonic frowned. "Well, don't starve yourself," he said, leaning over Tails' shoulder. "What do you want with these things anyway?" Sonic asked, picking up the yellow emerald and weighing it in his palm.

"I don't know, really. I keep having this weird suspicion that... well... these emeralds may be the key to beating the Chaos Clones. Do you remember that orange hedgehog at the start of all this?" Tails asked, turning to Sonic. Sonic shivered.

Six years ago, when the war started, an alien entity known as Dyamisius had come to Earth. Dyamisius, who had most likely been floating through space for years, needed large sources of energy to survive, and often drained entire planets of their energy to prolong the length of its life. Dyamisius had come to Earth, somehow bringing multiple clones of Chaos Zero with it. With it also came an orange hedgehog going by the name of Apollo, who traveled with the clones down to the blue planet to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic never figured out the reason why. He had supposed that Apollo had intended to give the emeralds to one of the Chaos Clones in order for Perfect Chaos to wreak havoc once more, but after a while of thinking about it, he became unsure. During a battle with the other hedgehog, Sonic had managed to harness the energy of his super form and defeat both Apollo and Dyamisius, Apollo's apparent master. Neither of them were ever heard from or seen again.

"Oh, how could I forget?" Sonic muttered, rubbing the spot on his chest where Apollo had once shot him. Sonic's super form had saved him from dying at the last moment.

"Yeah, well remember how he wanted the Chaos Emeralds for something? We never figured it out what he wanted with them, but now I think I have an idea," Tails said. He lifted the magnifying goggles away from his eyes to look at Sonic. "Where did they come from I wonder, him and that cloud?"

"Space," Sonic said. "I don't know. Another planet, another galaxy. Where do _any_ of these freaks come from?"

Tails chuckled. "I thought they came from somewhere in space too. Another galaxy maybe. But now I have a different theory after researching these emeralds and looking over Eggman's old satellites ," he said. Tails pulled a miniature laptop over to them and tapped in a three letter entry code needed to access a certain file. "This is one of the satellite readouts," he said, pointing to the screen, which was now completely black save for a few specks that were stars. Sonic squinted at the screen, and after a few moments, an incredibly large heat source suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the screen.

Sonic blinked. "So it just appeared there? How?" he asked.

Tails closed the laptop and frowned at Sonic. "That thing- the cloud- it must have been able to store massive amounts of energy inside it if it could absorb _planets_. Maybe even enough energy to match the seven Chaos Emeralds. If that's true... it could possibly use some kind of Chaos Control to travel here from even another dimension," he said.

Sonic stared at Tails. "Another _dimension_?" he asked. "How?"

Tails furrowed his brow, thinking of a way to explain his theory to Sonic. "In all of my time studying the emeralds, I've come to the conclusion that there are two dimensions," he began. "It's the same world that we live in, only they mirror each other. It could have people or places that are exactly the same as a person or place in our dimension. This second dimension is all around us, stacked on top of our own like... like... layers of a cake," Tails said.

"Or onions," Sonic chuckled.

"That's from _Shrek_ Sonic. I'm being serious here," Tails frowned. "There could be another version of the ARK here right now, only we aren't made to feel it, see it, taste it or smell it. A person with enough energy with them could concentrate on this second layer and warp themselves into that second dimension".

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Have you tested this theory yet?" he asked skeptically.

Tails' face turned pink under his fur. "No," he admitted, "it must require a lot more energy for me to use Chaos Control than you or Shadow. But now that you're here, I can test it out!"

Sonic hurriedly raised his hands in the air and backed away from Tails. "Woah, I'm not agreeing to warp myself anywhere if I don't know that this'll work. I could wind up floating above Jupiter without any arms if I tried to Chaos Control myself somewhere I haven't been before," he said.

Tails scowled. "I wasn't asking you to," he said. "Maybe if you could Chaos Control something else into the other dimension, we could find out if it works". The fox picked up a small, remote controlled video camera from the table and handed it to Sonic. "Turn that on," he said. Sonic obeyed and flicked a small switch on the side of the camera, turning the device on.

Sonic tried to look through the lens, but it was completely black. "I don't think this thing works," Sonic said to Tails.

"It does, just not that way," Tails said. He picked up a small remote with a miniature screen on it and pressed one of the small buttons on its face. With a flash, the screen on the remote lit up, showing the video that was being recorded on the camera. "There. Now we'll know if it exists or not when–"

"Tails, I don't know about this. I've Chaos Controlled myself and other people or things to different places, but I don't think that I can Chaos Control an object somewhere without taking it there myself," Sonic said uncertainly.

Tails put the remote down and frowned. "Well, how do you Chaos Control yourself somewhere?" he asked. Sonic looked at the video camera.

"I think of the place I want to be really hard, then just let the energy loose. It's kind of simple," he said. Tails nodded.

"Then can you hold something, then envision that object in a certain place to use it?" the fox asked.

Sonic blinked at the camera, then picked up the violet Chaos Emerald. "I'll try to practice," he said slowly. The blue hedgehog closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, concentrating as hard as he could on his own room aboard the ARK. In his mind's eye, he could see the camera appearing in the room in a flash of purple light. _Chaos Control_, the blue hedgehog thought to himself. He opened his eyes, but to his disappointment, and to Tails', the camera was still sitting in the palm of his hand.

"I guess not. Maybe my entire theory was just a load of–"

"Wait," Sonic said, cutting Tails off. He drew in a deep breath, then closed his eyes once more. Tails could see that Sonic was concentrating as hard as possible. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes were squeezed tightly shut. Sonic grunted in frustration and shook his head. "Jeez, this is impossible," he muttered, frowning at Tails once more.

"Wait," the fox said. "Just try one more time. Just once more".

Sonic looked uncertainly at the camera, but nodded his head reluctantly. He closed his eyes once more, only this time, instead of trying to force the energy into a chaos Control, he relaxed and let it flow from the chaos Emerald and into the camera, using his body as a conductor. "Chaos Control," he whispered softly to himself.

A flash of light startled Sonic into opening his eyes. He looked in amazement at his hand, seeing that the camera was gone. A grin slowly spread across Tails face.

"Did it work? Is it where you wanted it to be?" he asked excitedly. Sonic's reply was to zip out of the room, sprinting down the long corridor. Five seconds later, he returned to Tails with the camera in hand.

"It worked," the hedgehog grinned at Tails.

Tails looked amazed. "Then... do you think you could try and Chaos Control it to the other dimension? If it really exists, that is," he said.

Sonic looked at the Chaos Emeralds. "I don't know. Maybe, if I really set my mind to it," he said. "But I kind of doubt it".

Tails pushed him towards the other Chaos Emeralds. "Try it, try it!" he urged Sonic eagerly. Sonic touched each of the Chaos Emeralds, running his fingers over their smooth, cold surfaces. One by one they began to hover in the air around him, joining the violet emerald Sonic already held. Cupping the camera in both of his hands, Sonic closed his eyes once more, trying to establish the feeling of Chaos Energy flowing through him that he had felt before. Then Sonic concentrated on a place that he knew would look different if it were in a different dimension. Sonic envisioned the city of Station quare as it was at the time: a deserted ruin, overrun with bandits, Chaos Clones, and the criminally insane. Then Sonic tried to think of what it would be if it were a different world. _Will it be a forest? Will it still be a city? Will it really be any different than it is in our world?_

Suddenly Sonic felt it. Never before had he ever noticed this feeling while using the emeralds, but it was there now. He could almost sense this second world around him. Indeed, there was an alternate ARK in this other dimension, and Sonic could feel it all around him. He could hear the footsteps of people bustling about in the room, as well as feel the warmth of other living things brushing up against him. It was a comforting feeling, and Sonic had not known comfort since before the war had started.

_Chaos Control_, he thought, and the camera disappeared along with his newfound sixth sense. Tails cried out in joy at the image on the screen of the remote that he held.

"What is it?" Sonic asked, frowning. "Did it work?"

Tails just grinned and held the remote out to Sonic. "Look for yourself," he said, his voice overflowing with happiness. Sonic squinted at the video being recorded by the camera. Indeed it was Station Square, or at least it was a place that looked similar to it. But this was much different. People were moving about the city now, going about their daily business. Businessmen and businesswomen carrying briefcases and Blackberries hurried down the sidewalks, young children skipped happily down the street with their parents, and everywhere people were talking, and the small microphone on the camera recorded all of it. Both Sonic and Tails could hear the voices through the small speaker on the remote.

"Hey, have you ever been–"

"Hotdogs, get 'em here!"

"Can I get a balloon mommy?"

"Yeah, she is _so_ hot, dude!"

Sonic's eyes widened in amazement, and tears of joy welled up in his eyes. It had been too long since he had heard the happy sounds of an inhabited city. Sonic threw his arms around Tails neck and laughed joyously. "You are a _genius _Tails! I can't believe this! You– it– this is incredible!"

Tails' grin broadened, and he patted Sonic on the back. "I can't believe it either," he said quietly. He took the remote from the blue hedgehog and gazed into the screen before sighing happily.

"It's really something, isn't it?" he muttered.

--

**A/N:** Well, we're getting into the main plot here. I hope you liked this chapter, even though it had no action in it. Please review!


	5. The Ultimate and the Alternate

Wave shifted uncomfortably, drawing the HIPS cloth tent further over her to shield her head from the torrent of rain. They were in Vietnam on a recon mission, and it was monsoon season. Beside her, under a large tree lay Storm, who's bulk took up basically the entire space under his small tent.

"Hey Storm?" Wave called softly. "You asleep?"

"No," he grunted.

"Do you see anything? Any clones?"

"No."

"Huh." Wave rolled over staring at the cloth roof over her head, watching as it twitched and sagged with each gigantic raindrop that fell onto it. The roar of the raindrops on the dirt and on the leaves of the trees kept Wave from hearing a small whirring sound that passed by quickly overhead. She did, however, see a faint blue light through the cloth tent. "What was that?" she whispered to Storm, suddenly alert.

"I dunno," the albatross said, propping himself up on his elbows.

After a few moments of silence, Wave relaxed. "Nothing I guess. Maybe my imagination." However, it hadn't been her imagination. Floating eerily in midair, zipping through trees was a round, metallic object emanating a soft blue glow from the miniature anti-gravity boosters on the underside of it. A single round, mechanical eye had been attached to the front of it. Had it not been for the camouflage cloth, the small robot would have stopped to examine Wave and Storm. But it hadn't seen them, and had passed them by.

The tiny robot tilted itself left and right, scanning for any sources of heat in the area. Heat meant life, and life meant something to record. After a few moments it gave up and deactivated its scanners before hurtling into the dark, cloudy night sky. Where it went next, no one would know. No one had known of its existence for the entire twelve years that it had been on Earth, but it had been there, watching, recording, and living out its days in secrecy.

* * *

For the next month, life went on just as it had for the last two years. The ARKs maintenance workers kept the giant space station working fairly smoothly, the Freedom Fighters called meetings, recon teams were sent down to Earth, and a few more survivors were found. Nothing unusual happened except for a few steam pipes bursting in the ARKs recycling plant.

Sonic and Tails delved deeper and deeper into the mysterious new dimension that they had discovered, with Tails doing most of the research and Sonic practicing Chaos Controlling bigger and bigger things into the dimension.

"I wonder how some of the people there feel when we do this," Sonic said to Tails one night. "I mean, if an alien video camera or candy bar just popped up on your front doorstep, would you be freaked out?"

"Freaked out? No. Amazed? Yes," Tails said, squinting at the streams of computer code zipping across the screen of his computer. Sonic had no clue what the symbols and sequences of numbers meant, but apparently Tails could read them without much difficulty.

"Whatcha doin'?" Sonic said, leaning over Tails' shoulder. The fox looked back at Sonic.

"Oh, nothing. Just trying to figure out how this code is pieced together. I got it from that laser scanner that you sent to the Twilight Zone. Managed to scan the back of a DVD with it.

Tails and Sonic had begun referring to the alternate dimension as the "Twilight Zone", a spinoff of the creepy black-and-white TV show that used to play on the air before Sonic was even born.

"Lucky I got it to land in somebody's house," Sonic said proudly. "Even luckier that they were a total slob who left their things out in the open." After a moment Tails switched off the computer monitor and blinked the bleariness out of his eyes. Sonic frowned. "What's the matter dude?" he asked.

"We aren't getting anywhere, that's what's the matter," Tails grumbled. "I mean, sure, we've sent video cameras, candy bars, laser scanners and iPods there, but that hasn't gotten us any closer to figuring out the mystery of this. All we know is that this place exists."

"So... what else do you want to know about it?" asked Sonic.

"I don't know... what's the planet like? Is it inhabitable for us? Is it _big_ enough that if all of us managed to Chaos Control there, we could share the planet with its current inhabitants?" Tails asked.

"You're talking about us living there," Sonic said slowly.

"Yeah."

"We never talked about that. I thought this was just research," Sonic said, crossing his arms.

"It is! Research for us to find a better world to live in! Ours is already beyond repair–"

"Don't say that. You don't know that," Sonic said sharply. Tails looked like he was about to argue, but he saw a cold flash in the hedgehogs eyes. Sonic had always believed that they could save the world since day one. But this desire to save it seemed to have blinded him from the truth.

"You can't fix this, Sonic. None of us can," Tails said softly, putting a hand on Sonic's shoulder. Sonic brushed Tails hand away and shook his head.

"I don't believe that. I don't want to believe that," he said firmly. Tails sighed. Sonic had always been stubborn about that subject.

"I want what you want Sonic, I want a world that we can all live in safely. But right now, it seems like the only way that's going to happen is if we can get to this new dimension," Tails said. Sonic was silent. Tails turned away from him, rubbing his eyes with his fingers.

"Well then how are we going to get any closer to finding these things out?" Sonic asked Tails after a long pause. Tails frowned.

"Well..." he began, then stopped. "I don't mean to sound cruel or anything, but I think the only way to find out if we could live there is to send something living to the dimension and see if it survives," he said.

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Dude, we saw that people like us lived there. I think it's obvious that we could survive in a place like that, it's just like Earth," he said.

Tails shook his head. "No, you don't get it Sonic. The people there could have adapted to different conditions. They could have a bigger atmosphere and have more pressure being exerted on them. If that was the case and we tried to go there, we'd basically get crushed if the change was drastic enough," he said. "I mean, they could have only twelve percent of the oxygen in their air that we have on Earth. Remember, this is an alternate world, not a second Earth."

Sonic grimaced. Tails was right. It had been a bit foolish of him to jump to conclusions like that. "Then... what would we send?" he asked. Tails shrugged.

"I don't know. A mouse maybe. If you could send another one of those remote video cameras with it, we could watch it to see if it survives," the fox suggested.

Sonic smiled grimly. "We're gong through your cameras pretty quickly. I don't know if there are any left," he said.

"Sure there are," Tails said. "I've got at least..." he got up and sauntered over to the small toolchest he had in the corner of his room. "Oh. I only have one left," he said slowly, peering inside.

"How about a mouse? Where are we going to get one of those?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

Tails shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Talk to Big, he likes mice. He looks for them whenever he's down on Earth. He's got at least a dozen of them in that cage in his room," he said. Sonic shrugged. Tails was right, Big did have a lot of mice. It was incredibly odd, but Sonic could forgive the giant cat. After all, he was... well, he was different than most other people.

Sonic promised Tails that he would be right back before leaving the room in search of Big. About ten minutes later, Sonic re-entered the room holding something in his cupped hands. "I presume you persuaded Big to let you 'borrow' one of his pet mice?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, but it wasn't easy. After about five minutes of blubbering like a baby, he gave me his least favorite one," Sonic said. Tails handed the blue hedgehog both the remote controlled camera and the jade green Chaos Emerald, the most powerful of all of them. Holding the small mouse tight in one hand and the emerald and camera in the other, Sonic sighed. "If this kills you, sorry little buddy," Sonic said regretfully. He squeezed his eyes shut, willing the energy to flow from the emerald into the mouse and camera. There was a brief flash of green, and the hand that had been holding the mouse closed completely.

Sonic opened his eyes quickly, ready to see the results. "Did it work?" he asked Tails hesitantly, placing the emerald back Tails' desk.

"I can't tell," Tails said slowly, squinting at the remote linked to the camera. "The mouse isn't in front of the camera. Where did you Chaos Control them to anyway? That place looks kind of familiar," he said, frowning. Sonic looked over Tails' shoulder at the image on the small screen and grinned.

"That's the Twilight Zone equivalent of your old workshop, Tails," Sonic chuckled patting Tails on the shoulder. Looking closer, Tails could see that this was true. The building was small and cramped, much like his workshop had been. The single room was also octagonal in shape, with a bare cement floor and ugly yellow wallpaper covering the walls. Of course, the walls were grey in Tails' Workshop, but he didn't expect it to be exactly the same.

Suddenly Tails' eyes widened in surprise. "Sonic, look!" he gasped, pointing at the screen. Slowly on the left edge of the screen, a small, pink nose appeared. Twitching as it sniffed at the cement floor. The nose was followed by thin, grey whiskers, two beady black eyes, and a furry little head. Tails grinned up at Sonic. "It worked!" he cried. "It–"

Suddenly a rush of static crackled through the speakers on the remote. A large hand suddenly appeared as if from nowhere and grasped the mouse by the tail, hoisting it into the air. The mouse squeaked in fear, but the person who picked it up just muttered a curse under their breath. "Damn mice. Where do these things keep coming from?"

The image on the screen tilted suddenly until it was facing up into the face of an anthropomorphic female squirrel that appeared to be in her late twenties. She frowned at the lens of the camera, then looked up. "Pete, did you leave a video camera out here?" she called loudly.

"I don't have a video camera," a low, muffled voice answered.

"Huh," the squirrel grunted. She strode to the doorway and tossed the mouse outside before reaching down and pressing a button on the camera.

The screen went blank.

Sonic and Tails slowly turned to one another. "So," Tails said after a few moments. "I guess... it works," he said at last. Then it dawned on him what they had just discovered. "It _works_! We have another world!" Tails cried.

Sonic nodded slowly, but didn't smile. "So that's it?" he said after a moment. "We just... leave everything the way it is here and move to another world? I don't even know if it'll work. The emeralds are powerful, yeah, but... who's to say that their power is limited to an extent? Warping cameras and mice is one thing, warping people is twenty levels past that."

"Then we send one person into this second dimension, and if it works then we send another person, and another, and another. If the emeralds conk out, then at least we'd have sent a few people there," Tails said. Then his eyes brightened. "If the emeralds _do_ lose too much energy, then we can just have Knuckles recharge them with the Master Emerald. He can do that, right?"

Sonic frowned. "I think so, but I don't think you're thinking clearly Tails. You've always been the smart one, but right now you just have to calm down, step back and look at the whole picture. What if some people don't want to leave? What if they get there and want to come back? Have you thought of that?" he asked, gazing intently at the fox.

Tails didn't answer. "You're right," he said after a few moments. "We can't just jump into this, it's a whole different world. I'm sorry Sonic," Tails said, patting the blue hedgehog on the shoulder.

"You don't have to be, just don't be so eager," Sonic said. "I think the best way to make a decision is to call a meeting with all the available recon teams and commanding officers of the military."

* * *

The Freedom Fighters had tried to make as much of a democracy as possible, but with the situation they were in, it was quite difficult .Instead of politicians, the recon teams and military officers held most of the power aboard the ARK, making the ARK somewhat like a modern day Sparta. Of course, not everything was war with them. They had recruiting sessions, and drafts when needed, but they never forced every man or woman aboard the ARK to fight in battles.

At the moment, the recon teams were sitting in a circle surrounding the center of the main testing lab of the ARK, listening intently to Tails and Captain Jeed, who were locked tightly in a verbal battle. Apparently Jeed didn't approve of Tails' idea.

"Are you insane? You're asking me to send either Sonic or Shadow the Hedgehog into who the hell knows what kind of place that you've just discovered this month. _Sonic or Shadow_? Do you know that they are two of the best soldiers we have in this army?" Jeed barked. Like Tails, he was a fox, although battles and the slow decay of time had grayed his fur and given his face a sharp, dangerous look to it. When angered, his eyes burned with a fire that was said to have made a lunging Chaos Clone stagger backwards. Tails, however, was not a lunging Chaos Clone and stood his ground firmly, taking any verbal abuse that Jeed could throw at him.

"Captain," Tails said slowly, trying to keep his voice level, "I'm only asking them to go there and make contact with people on the other side. We know they are anthropomorphic animaloids like us, and we know that they are intelligent. They're just as advanced as us, perhaps even more so. One of them can go there and just tell whoever rules the country alternate to the United Federation that we're coming. It won't take more than three days."

"Three days? In three days there could be the battle that decides if we live or die, kit," Jeed snapped.

During the argument, Sonic noticed Shadow, who kept on glancing at a certain section of the floor, then at one of the control panels, then back at the floor. Sonic frowned and looked up at Tails and Jeed as they argued. They probably didn't remember, but Sonic did. This was the same room where Maria had been shot by a GUN soldier over fifty years ago.

"You alright?" Sonic whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Why do you care?" Shadow hissed under his breath.

"Just asking, chill out." Sonic looked back up at Jeed, who was now scowling at Tails, but was silent. After a moment, he seemed to break.

"You know- fine, you've got your one wish kit, but if you screw this up, I'm going to personally feed you to the clones down on Earth," Jeed said, pointing at Tails.

Tails barely suppressed a grin and shook Jeed's hand with a mutter of, "Thank you, sir."

"Whatever," Jeed said, picking up a filled rucksack and turning to Shadow and Sonic. "So which of you numbskulls is going on this little trip?" he asked.

Sonic and Shadow glanced at one another. Sonic slowly raised his hand. "Um... me I guess," he said when Shadow did nothing.

Jeed looked at Sonic skeptically before tossing him the rucksack. "Remember Sonic, you've only got three days to pull this off. That's how much food is in your bag. Any more than three days, you're on your own," he said. "Not only that," he added, "but your friend Prower will be fed to the dogs."

Sonic just grinned, slung the rucksack over his shoulders, and strode over to the seven Chaos Emeralds laying in the exact center of the room. Picking them up, a memory flitted in Sonic's mind of a time long ago when he had stood on this very spot before Doctor Robotnik had enclosed him in an escape capsule and blasted him out into space.

"You sure you want to take all of the emeralds?" Knuckles asked, standing and slowly walking over to Sonic.

"Don't wanna be stranded between both dimensions, now do I, Knucklehead?" Sonic chuckled. "Just doing it to be safe."

Knuckles sighed and held out his hand. "Well, whatever you find on the other side... good luck," he said.

"I always have good luck, Knux, you should know that by now," Sonic said, winking at his rival-turned-friend.

Tails stepped forward and embraced Sonic in a hug. "Now remember what we planned: you're supposed to make contact with the leaders of whatever country you land in and tell them we're coming. We don't want to surprise all those people. Try Chaos Controlling to the alternate United Federation," the fox said.

"Sure thing, bud," Sonic said, grinning.

All of the others stood, one by one, to say their farewells and good lucks to Sonic. After a good five minutes of goodbyes, Sonic stepped back from them. "I'll be back before you know it, guys and gals," Sonic said, shouldering his rucksack. He looked at each of the seven Chaos Emeralds one by one as they began to float in a circle of light around his head. _Time to go,_ he thought to himself. A few days ago he had Chaos Controlled a pen into the Twilight Zone equivalent of Central City. If he wanted to make contact with the leaders of the Twilight Zone United Federation, he would start there.

"Chaos Control," he whispered, and was gone.

--

**A/N:** Kool, main storyline time. The next chapter is kinda important, so if you like this story it's a pivotal chapter to read. One more week and it'll be up! Anyway, please review, and many thanks to the people that did review the last chapter!


	6. Divided by Two

When the blinding light around Sonic faded away, he found himself standing in the middle of a bright, sunny park. Birds twittered away happily in the trees, couples laughed as they walked hand in hand, and teenage boys ollied over wooden benches on their skateboards.

A grin spread on Sonic's face. He'd made it. He was in the alternate dimension he had dreamed of seeing in person for so long. He felt like jumping for joy, like screaming at the top of his lungs in happiness. But he didn't want to make a big scene. He was in the middle of a public area after all. Already people were giving him odd looks just for standing there. Sonic couldn't really blame them. Here he was, standing in the middle of a park carrying a battered army rucksack and surrounded by glowing gems.

Sonic suddenly blinked in confusion and looked around frantically. Where were the chaos Emeralds? They weren't surrounding his head as they usually were. Sonic glanced down, and to his surprise, he saw that he was surrounded by rocks. _What the-_ Sonic's eyes suddenly widened and he knelt down to examine the rocks closer. "Oh no," Sonic said quietly to himself. The "rocks" were the Chaos Emeralds. Or at least what was left of them. Their colorful glow was all but gone, leaving them looking like dull, grey stones. Even their diamond-like shape seemed less defined.

It was just as Sonic feared. Even with all seven of the emeralds, their power was just barely enough to Chaos Control him to another dimension. His words to Tails echoed in his mind. _"Warping cameras and mice is one thing, but warping people is twenty levels past that!"_

"What's that hedgehog doing with those rocks mommy?" screeched a little girl, pointing at Sonic. Sonic blinked and unslung the rucksack from his shoulders, shoveling the dull, nearly powerless emeralds into the pack. He suddenly noticed how conspicuous he looked kneeling down in front of a pile of stones in the middle of a park.

Sonic stood to his feet and hurried off, trying to ignore the response of the mother: "I don't know, Sammy. Some people are just strange."

For most of the day Sonic walked around asking where he was and how to get to the White House. As for where he was, the answer from most people (some ignored him and others laughed in his face) was that he was in a place called Southern City. As for how to get to the White House, nobody knew what he was talking about. "_White house? I don't know... there's a nice little section of town to the West. There are lots of white houses there,"_ somebody said.

Early on in the day Sonic was struck with a stroke of bad luck. When he tried to buy a chili dog from a vendor in the street with some of the money that had been packed into his rucksack, he found that United Federation currency wasn't taken. Sonic supposed he should have expected that. He threw the ten thousand dollars in the pack into a sewer drain, seeing as it was just taking up space in his pack. When lunchtime came, Sonic rummaged through the rucksack to find something to eat. He found the usual Freedom Fighter's diet of corn products, a couple cans of baked beans, and a insulated bag full of ice packs and lunch meat. There was also a bottle of water that could be refilled at a water fountain if needed

The real problem, however, was finding someplace to sleep at night. After an unsurprisingly uneventful day, Sonic was forced to find somewhere to sleep out on the street. Sonic decided to return to the same park where he had first appeared in to try and find a tree to sleep under. He had no such luck, as all of the trees were surrounded by iron fencing. _And I thought this was a park_,Sonic thought glumly to himself. He was forced to find a bench to sleep on instead.

Sonic felt one of his nightmares coming again when he was suddenly prodded roughly in the back. His eyes fluttered open, and his ears twitched as he heard three voices chuckling behind him.

"Yo, bench sleeper," snickered one of the voices. "Hey, wake up. You got a home, bench sleeper?"

Sonic turned around, shielding his eyes from the small penlight that one of the figures was shining in his face. "What? Who are you?" he mumbled drearily. He moved his rucksack so that it was behind him, wary of any attempt at robbery.

"We were gonna ask you the same thing, bench sleeper. Don't you know that this place is off limits? This is our territory. We own Memorial Park at night," said another of the figures snidely. From the sound of their voices, they all appeared to be young men.

"A gang territory?" Sonic asked, blinking sleep from his eyes. The figure with the light moved closer, and Sonic could see that he was an anthropomorphic, black rottweiler.

"Damn right."

"Well, you don't seem to mind it when people are here during the day. I just want a comfortable place to sleep at night," Sonic said.

"You got a home, bench sleeper?" repeated the second figure, a brown duck.

"If I did, I wouldn't be here right now, would I?" Sonic asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Just get the hell out of here, alright?" snapped the third, a blue gecko.

"I don't have anywhere else to go..." Sonic began.

Suddenly the rottweiler dropped the light, grabbed Sonic by the collar and threw him on the ground. "How'd you like that, bench sleeper, huh? You want some more?" he laughed.

Sonic calmly dusted himself off and caught his rucksack as the gecko hurled it at his head. The hedgehog had always been short tempered, but the war had amplified this fault tenfold. "Don't push me," he said through clenched teeth.

"Ooh! I think the bench sleeper thinks he's tough!" the rottweiler laughed. He reached into his back pocket and brought out a slender, black handle. With a flick of his wrist, a gleaming blade popped out of the handle and the large, ugly dog grinned. "You still think you're tough?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I'm out of here. This isn't worth the trouble," he muttered under his breath. The three figures laughed and whooped as Sonic turned away.

"Where you goin', bench sleeper? Come on back and get your ass kicked!" shouted the duck. Sonic ignored him and kept on walking. Then the rottweiler went even further, urged on by his apparent "victory" in scaring Sonic away. He stepped forward and pressed the knife to an area of Sonic's back that wasn't covered by the rucksack, unintentionally poking the point through the hedgehog's jacket and making a small cut in his skin.

If Sonic had quick reflexes six years ago, they were at least twice as fast then. The nerves in Sonic's back tensed as they felt the knife cut into his flesh. They immediately sent a message through his lightning fast nervous system and to his brain: _pain._ His brain heard the message and sent one of its own to Sonic's muscles and body: _defend_.

"Hey bench sleeper–"

_Crack!_ Sonic whirled around, grabbed the dog's wrist with one hand and punched the back of his elbow with the other, dislocating his forearm from the rest of his arm. The dog howled in pain and dropped the weapon, staggering backwards.

The duck and gecko took little time to react and jumped Sonic, expecting to tag team him and overwhelm him. They were fast, but Sonic was much faster. He whirled around, smashing one sneaker into the geckos face with a roundhouse kick before pivoting around, ducking as the duck took a swing at the back of his head.

Sonic slammed his fist into the duck's gut, then lifted him off the ground with sheer strength alone, throwing him over one shoulder and slamming him onto the cold, hard ground.

As the blue hedgehog turned around he was struck in the face by the rottweiler, who seemed to have somewhat gotten over the pain of having his forearm dislocated. The dog snarled and swung a kick at Sonic's neck, preferring to fight with its legs than his maimed arms. Sonic didn't dodge the attack but took it, pinning the rottweiler's leg against his neck with one arm. As the dog attempted to pull his leg free, Sonic put one hand under its ankle, the other under its thigh, then flipped it backwards so that it landed face first on the ground.

For a moment Sonic looked around, making sure that his opponents were all down for the count. The gecko was unconscious, but the duck and rottweiler were both perfectly fine... that was, save for a few large bruises and a dislocated arm. They would be alright, they were just a bit winded.

Sonic shouldered his pack and hurried out of the park as quickly as he could without attracting too much attention. He assumed that somebody had already heard the sounds of scuffle and had called the police, and he heard sirens wailing in the distance already.

Sonic found an overhang to sleep under through the rest of that night. When he awoke, he decided to travel around the town. He had already been through the entire wealthy and middle class sections of town, and nobody he'd asked had known anything about a White House. When he asked who their leader was, many people laughed and asked them if he was an alien or something. _What am I supposed to say? Yes?_ Sonic thought to himself.

As he made his way to the slums of the city, Sonic noticed something he hadn't before: there were no humans anywhere. Every bipedal being he had met since arriving in this new dimension was an anthropomorphic animal, like himself. It was odd, but not unexpected.

_Yup. This is where a bench sleeper like me belongs_, Sonic thought to himself as he entered the heart of the poor district of Southern City. Large cardboard boxes littered the sides of the road, giving shelter to the many homeless people living on the streets. Chained pet dogs howled at Sonic as he passed by people's yards, and one old lady wearing a pink scarf and a down jacket (despite the fact that it was the middle of summer) cursed and spat at him as he came near.

Sonic heard a muffled groan come from a dark alleyway to his right. He frowned. "Hello?" he called.

"Hello? Who's that?" rasped a voice from inside the alley. Sonic heard the _snap-fsssh _of a match being lit, and the face of an old tortoise peered out from the gloom, illuminated by the yellow flame from the match. "You look lost, son," the homeless tortoise said, frowning at Sonic.

Sonic shrugged. "Well, uh, I am," he stammered slowly.

The tortoise nodded. "Yes, yes, you look like somebody that needs a little something to get him on his feet," he said. "Come on, come on. I don't bite! I ain't one of them snappin' turtles."

Sonic hesitated, then stepped into the alley. What was there to worry about? This was just a kindly old man. Probably crazy, but not the psychotic kind of crazy. The old tortoise lit a few small candles on top of a large cardboard box with the match, then blew it out. He pulled the blue tarp away from the front of the box, reached inside, and pulled out a metal flask. "This stuff always helps me out when I'm lost. Jogs me memory," the tortoise chuckled.

Before Sonic could explain that he didn't drink, the tortoise had already filled a tin cup to the brim with brown liquid and thrust it into Sonic's hands.

"Drink up, me boy. Tis good stuff," the old man said. Sonic set his rucksack down and looked at the liquid thoughtfully. _Eh, can't hurt_, he thought, and downed the liquid in one gulp.

Actually Sonic was wrong. It _did_ hurt. The liquid felt like fire rushing down his throat an into his stomach. Sonic dropped the cup and groaned, clutching at his gut. "Oh, I don't feel good," he groaned. The tortoise just laughed heartily, patting Sonic on the shoulder.

"Ye get used to it," he said. He sat down on the asphalt and looked up at Sonic. "So what's a handsome young feller like you doin' around here I wonder? You got family down in the poor are of Southern City?" the tortoise asked.

Sonic fidgeted. He really shouldn't tell an old man about his mission. _Ah, what the hell,_ Sonic thought to himself. He sat down across from the old tortoise, making sure not to jar his burning stomach too much. "Well, I need to find the leader of... your country," he said.

"Leader? You mean the queen?" the tortoise asked, tilting his wrinkled head to the side.

Sonic suddenly clasped his hands together as though thanking God. "Oh, _thank you_! Finally somebody tells me something! Jesus, I was asking all over the place and nobody mentioned a queen!" he cried.

"That's right, Queen Blaze. She lives in northern Southern City. She's pretty humble, keeps her own medium sized apartment. Didn't you see the statue of the late King Flare in Memorial Park? It's the tallest monument in the world. Why do you need to find Blaze?"

Sonic froze. "Queen... Blaze?" he asked slowly. His eyes widened, and he slowly put a hand over his mouth. Was he in the dimension that _Blaze the Cat_ had come from?

"That's right. She a cat. Pretty little thing," the tortoise said. "Why are you looking for her?" he asked again.

"I'm... I'm an old friend of hers. Just wanted to talk, you know," Sonic stated slowly. He passed his shaking hands over his brow. Blaze the Cat. She was here, this was her world, and he hadn't even known it. If Sonic's own dimension was the domain of his Chaos Emeralds, then this world had to be the dimension of Blaze's Sol Emeralds. A Chaos Dimension and a Sol Dimension.

Sonic grinned at the old tortoise and shook his hand hurriedly. "Thank you so much sir, you've been very helpful," he said excitedly. _If Blaze is the queen, then it should be easy to talk to her. That is, if she remembers me,_ Sonic thought. He rushed out into the street, grinning.

"Don't mention it, blue hedgehog," hissed a different voice behind him. Sonic froze, the grin on his face slowly melting away. He turned back to face the dark alleyway. Inside, Sonic could hear muffled noises that sounded as though a man was having his intestines mauled by a tiger. They stopped soon enough, and a dark silhouette stood up, a groan escaping its mouth.

"Who are you?" Sonic asked, backing away from the figure. It advanced slowly, and Sonic could see the gleam of sharp, white teeth grinning at him in the darkness.

"Oh, you know me. We met a long time ago, blue hedgehog," chuckled a deep, sinister voice. "You may remember me, you may not. But I remember you, blue hedgehog. In fact, ever since I came back I have thought of nothing except..." the figure stepped into the street, facing Sonic for the first time in six years. "... You."

This was Apollo the Hedgehog. This was one of the most brutal enemies Sonic had ever faced in his life. He was a deranged, violent lunatic, and somehow he had made his way to the Sol Dimension after Sonic had "killed" him six years ago.

"Ooh... your eyes, your face... you didn't think I was still alive, did you?" Apollo asked, grinning.

"No, I didn't," Sonic admitted. "I'd thought you exploded along with your precious master."

"I did, blue hedgehog, I did. But I was given a second chance, thankfully. Despite how much I hated him, despite how much I wanted to be rid of him, Dyamisius gave me my final wish," Apollo said.

Sonic scowled at his old enemy, suddenly noticing a few subtle, yet distinct changes in his appearance since he last saw him. Apollo's old knee and elbow pads had disappeared, along with the steel bands seemingly welded to his wrists, leaving a circle of melted quills and browned flesh where they had been. Sonic also wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a flash of green in Apollo's cold, blue eyes. "What was this wish?" Sonic asked, trying to distract Apollo. The blue hedgehog's eyes were already darting around, looking for an escape route. He had no wish to fight Apollo in the middle of the street.

"To come home, and to live freely," Apollo said. "Dyamisius is wonderful in his ways. He can give you whatever you like... at a price," the orange hedgehog hissed.

"What price?" Sonic secured the rucksack on his back securely, ready to bolt.

Apollo's eyes flashed and he stepped so close to Sonic that their noses almost touched. "You get them, don't you? The dreams? The nightmares?" he asked.

Sonic blinked, relaxing slightly. "How do you know about that?" he asked suspiciously.

Apollo grinned at him. "Because, blue hedgehog. Because I get them too. Because we were both chosen to carry on the legacy of Dyamisius. The cloud was only his original physical form. When that form dies, his spirit manifests itself in the body of the person closest to him. You were leaving the cloud, blue hedgehog. You received the lesser power, the power to see into the mind of Dyamisius, and if you knew how, you could control it. But you aren't that strong. It wants to get out of you, blue hedgehog. You are unworthy," he said.

Sonic was shocked. "I'm... I'm carrying that thing inside me? Inside my- my soul?" he gasped in horror.

Apollo seemed gleeful at Sonic's distress. He grinned broadly and chuckled softly to himself. "That's right, blue hedgehog. Your price is the pain in your dreams. I get dreams too, only they aren't painful. I see you, blue hedgehog. I see you, and what will happen when the spirit breaks loose. You will kill them all, blue hedgehog. You will destroy all that you love," he said. "They are quite soothing dreams, actually. I like them."

Sonic gaped at Apollo. He opened his mouth to ask what he could do to stop himself from doing this, but then closed it and stepped away from Apollo. "You're a liar," Sonic said. "You're trying to make me–"

"What? What could I gain by lying to you?" Apollo asked, scanning Sonic with his cold, emotionless eyes. "There is, of course, something I could do to help you," he said slowly. "You see, while you inherited this lesser power, I developed a greater ability. Although it is sometimes a bit annoying, I find it mostly useful. I must drain people of their traits and energy in order to live, much like Dyamisius needed to leech off of entire planets to survive. These people's abilities, appearance, and whatnot can be used by me."

"What are you saying?" Sonic asked slowly, scowling at the other hedgehog.

"I can take this from you, blue hedgehog. With this last bit of Dyamisius's essence from you, I may not even need hosts for energy any longer, and you will be free. All you have to do is let me work my magic," Apollo said, grinning and rubbing his hands together. Sonic thought that he saw Apollo's gloved hands glow with a pale light briefly, but the light faded just as soon as it had appeared.

Sonic looked into Apollo's eyes for a moment. Apollo had fought him before. He had tried to _kill_ him before. Should he really trust him? Sonic scowled and shook his head, stepping back. "You're a snake, Apollo. I don't believe a word you're saying, and I sure as hell won't let you work your _magic _on me," Sonic said.

"I expected your final reaction to be denial," Apollo said, narrowing his eyes. "But that's much too bad. I guess that means I'll just have to take it from you then," Apollo said.

He darted forward, swinging one palm towards the side of Sonic's face. Sonic raised his arm, blocking Apollo's hand before delivering two quick, successive kicks to the other hedgehog: one to his hip and the other to the side of his head.

Apollo spun backwards, then snarled in anger and charged forward once more, tackling Sonic to the ground.

--

**A/N:** To be continued next chapter! What, you didn't think I wasn't going to have another cliffhanger? Well... I did. Sorry for that, but the story will get dull if I don't have more suspense. Anyway, if anybody new to this story doesn't understand who this "Apollo" character is, I don't blame you, because I didn't do a very good job summarizing part one in my opinion. If you'd like, please read part one as well, it clears up a some confusing things in this story. Anyway, please review, as always! Oh, and next chapter is almost entirely a fight scene... just a heads up for people who like that kinda stuff.


	7. Street Fight

Sonic brought both his feet together and slammed them into Apollo's gut, sending him hurtling into a lamppost. The blue hedgehog rolled backwards quickly, flipping to his feet. He had no intentions of fighting Apollo in the middle of a city street.

Sonic turned and was about to start running when a searing pain flashed up his spine, bringing him to his knees.

_Don't be afraid,_ hissed the voice from his nightmares. Immediately his vision went black, and two blood red eyes appeared in front of him, staring into the depths of his very soul. _We are close now. We can be one..._

Sonic was jerked out of his terrible vision as Apollo wrapped his arm around Sonic's neck, lifting him to his feet.

"You can feel that, can't you blue hedgehog?" Apollo laughed, tightening his chokehold on Sonic's throat. "Can't you see our connection? We are meant to be together, blue hedgehog," the orange hedgehog hissed in sonic's ear.

"Sorry Apollo, I don't wanna be your gay partner," Sonic managed to rasp before slamming the back of his head into Apollo's face. The orange hedgehog instinctively let Sonic go, snarling and clutching his nose in pain.

Sonic whirled around, delivering a flurry of punches and kicks to Apollo's upper torso and face before pulling back one leg and slamming it into his chest, sending him flying backwards.

Apollo skidded down the street, rolling to a stop next to an empty beer bottle lying on the street. He quickly snatched it up and hurled it at Sonic, smashing the glass bottle into his face.

Sonic cried out in pain, his hands flying to his face to try and pick out the small pieces of glass that had become embedded in his skin. When he looked up, the only thing he had time to see was a fist headed straight at his face before he was knocked two meters down the street. Sonic wiped blood away from a cut under his right eye and leapt to his feet, ready for an attack.

Grinning, Apollo lunged forward, feigning a blow at Sonic's chest before sweeping his leg across the ground, tripping Sonic and sending him crashing to the ground. Before Sonic could get up, Apollo grabbed hold of his collar, whirled around, and hurled him through the boarded up window of an abandoned china shop.

A dazed Sonic rolled sideways to avoid being pinned between Apollo's knee and the floor before kicking the other hedgehog in the back of one thigh and scrambling to his feet. Sonic ducked as Apollo swung a right hook at his face, then lunged forward, tackling him into the wall.

A winded Apollo groped for Sonic's throat, but met nothing but air as Sonic stepped back, then rushed forward again, bringing his knee up to connect with Apollo's chin. Sonic aimed to repeat the attack but was kicked in the groin by Apollo and sent stumbling backwards.

Apollo rushed Sonic, smashing a sledgehammer blow into his chest and sending him toppling through yet another boarded up window.

Sonic grunted painfully as he hit the pavement. Amazingly his rucksack hadn't been torn yet, but by now he had bruises that felt as though they were stones buried inside rotten fruit. He propped himself up on his hands and knees, spitting a string of bloody saliva onto the pavement. If he didn't get out of this battle soon, he would be done for.

His thoughts were cut short as Apollo vaulted over the broken windowsill, landing in front of Sonic.

"So? Are you ready to submit?" Apollo asked, wiping blood from a cut on his lip.

Sonic just began to chuckle softly, much to the annoyance of Apollo. The blue hedgehog grinned up at Apollo, revealing a swollen eye, a gash on one cheekbone, and a few larger bruises on his face. "Oh, you know me Apollo. I don't give up that easily," Sonic said.

"That's right. I forgot that you were a fool," Apollo sneered.

Sonic just snickered, tensing his bruised muscles for one last, lightning quick movement. "Fuck you," Sonic said before curling into a spindash and zipping down the street. Not stopping to look behind him, Sonic rolled on for at least three minutes. When he finally stopped, Sonic found that he was in what appeared to be the rich district of the city. He wiped sweat away from his brow and sighed heavily. He needed time to think, and process what Apollo had told him. But now was not the time. Sonic had to get somewhere quiet and out of the way...

A distant scream interrupted Sonic's thoughts. Frowning, he turned to the source of the noise. A low rumble shook the ground. Then another one a few seconds later. Then another, and another.

Further on down the street, Sonic thought he saw something _jumping_ across roads, over cars, and even over entire building. But that was impossible, Sonic had never seen anything jump that high or that far.

_Crash!_ The jumping figure smashed into the cement sidewalk directly in front of Sonic, causing dust and chunks of cement to fly into the air. When the smoke cleared, the figure standing in the center of the small crater was none other than Apollo.

"You really didn't think you were going to get rid of me that easily, did you?" Apollo asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sonic was dumbstruck. Apollo had been powerful before, but not nearly that powerful. The orange hedgehog's words echoed in his head. _"I must drain people of their traits and energy in order to live, much like Dyamisius needed to leech off of entire planets to survive. These peoples abilities, appearance, and whatnot can be used by me." _

Sonic clenched his fists and moved into a fighting stance as Apollo slowly walked towards him. Some of the people around them were screaming in terror and running away. Others were standing there, taking pictures of the two hedgehogs with their cell phones.

Sonic dodged quickly as Apollo struck out at him, then swung his leg up, kneeing Apollo in the stomach. Apollo recoiled in pain, then lunged at Sonic once more, smashing the back of his fist against the side of Sonic's face.

The two hedgehogs went back and forth, dueling across and down the street, each delivering bone crushing blows to the other. But neither of them let up. Apollo hurled Sonic through a wall, and Sonic sprang back with a scissor kick, smashing Apollo into the ground. Sonic managed to assault Apollo with a flurry of quick blows, and Apollo would smash one powerful punch into Sonic's chest, sending him flying into the windshield of a car.

Sonic rolled backwards, dodging another kick aimed at the side of his head, then curled into a ball and spindashed himself right into Apollo's chest. It was one of the oldest combat moves that Sonic knew, but Apollo didn't expect it. Then, to Sonic's surprise, Apollo grasped Sonic by his quills while he was still curled into a ball, not caring that his hands were being sliced to ribbons, and hurled him through the plate glass window of a diner.

The people in the building screamed and took cover as the spinning, spherical hedgehog smashed through the glass case displaying numerous pastries, then crashed into the far wall of the diner. Sonic fell to the floor, coughing and clutching his side. He tried to move, but a sharp pain just above his hip kept him from standing. Looking down, he found that his white glove was sticky with blood, and that a large shard of glass from the glass display case had pierced him in the side.

Shaking, Sonic slowly pulled the bloody shard of glass out of the wound, then looked up to see Apollo slowly advancing on the diner, his eyes flashing victoriously.

After making sure that none of the pieces of glass had torn his rucksack open, Sonic shakily stood to his feet. Apollo may have been stronger than him, but Sonic was still the faster of the two. Sonic tensed, preparing to dash forward. Apollo seemed to sense this, and punched both fists into the road before ripping up two large chunks of pavement.

Sonic ran forward, wincing as the wound in his side flared up with pain at every stride. As Sonic began to pick up more speed, Apollo hurled one of the slabs of pavement at Sonic, hoping to slow him down. Sonic simply dashed forward faster, rolled under the slab of pavement, and flipped into the air, preparing to land behind Apollo and make a run for it.

_Thwack!_ Gripping the second slab of pavement with both hands, Apollo swung it at Sonic as he came close, smashing him to the side.

Sonic landed with a _thud_ on the pavement. He groaned and tried to move, but he couldn't. His muscles felt empty. Sonic twitched, hearing footsteps approaching.

"Well, will you look at that? I beat you again, blue hedgehog. How shocking," Apollo said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The footsteps came closer. "But I admit, it wasn't as easy as the first time I fought you. All I needed during that first fight was a little adrenaline, and you toppled right over. Have you been brushing up on your martial arts skills, blue hedgehog?" Apollo asked.

Sonic felt hands grip him by the back of the neck and hoist him into the air. Flinching at the stinging pain in his side, Sonic craned his neck to face his enemy. "Yeah, kinda. I'm glad you noticed. Makes me appreciate all the effort I put into my fight training," he said. He was punished for his wisecrack as Apollo's knee came up, hitting him in the stomach.

"Well it didn't help much. Who taught you? That thickheaded echidna, or the slutty bat?" Apollo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Actually both," Sonic said, trying in vain to pull out of Apollo's grasp. To his surprise, Apollo let him go.

"Let's see what they taught you then, blue hedgehog," Apollo said. He spread his arms and grinned. "Come on, try and hit me. I want to see," he said, his lip curling into a sneer.

Moving as quickly as he could, Sonic thrust his fist into Apollo's gut, then whirled around, smashing him in the face with his elbow. Apollo staggered back, clutching his muzzle.

Sonic didn't give him time to recuperate and hit Apollo in the chest with three successive kicks before hitting him with a roundhouse to his neck. Apollo was flung to the pavement, growling angrily. He hadn't expected Sonic to still be so fast after all this time fighting.

Sonic kicked him in the side savagely. He didn't care that it was a cheap shot. Apollo would have done the same thing to him if given the chance.

Apollo rolled with the kick before springing to his feet and resuming his offensive position in the fight. He swung both fists at Sonic's head simultaneously, hoping to crush his skull between both of his hands. Sonic ducked and dropkicked Apollo in the chest, sending him staggering backwards.

Before Sonic could get up from the ground, Apollo dashed forward, grasped Sonic by both ankles, and spun him around before hurling him down the street with all his might. Apollo watched as Sonic shrank to a dot in the distance, then crashed through the cement wall of a parking garage. Apollo grinned softly to himself and hurried forward, dead set on getting to the parking garage before Sonic got away... or died.

Sonic groaned and rolled over, desperately fighting to stay conscious. He stretched out one aching arm, brushed away some of the chunks of cement now littering the parking garage floor, and tried to pull himself forward. He had gone no more than a foot before a bolt of pain flashed up his spine, causing him to cry out in pain and collapse. Sonic tasted blood, and soon became aware of the fact that he had accidentally bit down on his tongue quite hard. The cuts were small, but just deep enough to draw some blood.

Sonic gasped and reached into the rucksack, groping for one of the dead Chaos Emeralds. He found one and grasped it tightly in one hand desperately willing it to work again, for its energy to flow through him and give him strength. But no matter how hard he tried the emerald felt like nothing more than a cold rock in his palm.

Sonic heard footsteps approaching and pulled his arm out of the rucksack, trying to crawl further on feebly. Every inch of his body ached, and he felt as though he could go no further.

"Is this him?" asked a voice. Sonic frowned. That wasn't Apollo's voice. It belonged to a female.

"It has to be. He's the one from the park with the rucksack," said another, deeper voice. Sonic tried to ask who these people were, but all that came out of his mouth was a feeble croak.

"He stinks like all the others from his world. Guy's got Chaos Energy all over him," said another voice, thin and raspy.

"How the hell did he get so beat up? You think that was him causing all that trouble down in the middle of the city?" said the female voice.

"Must've been. I don't know of anybody besides Eggman Nega that would cause that kind of trouble, and he died some time ago," said the deep, male voice. There was a pause, and then Sonic felt something roll him over.

Sonic found himself facing three hedgehogs. The first, the female, had pale blue quills and cold, grey eyes.

The second, the one who had rolled him over, had grey quills and brown eyes, though not a warm, happy brown as usual. They were more like strips of blank tan encircling the bottomless pits of his pupils.

The third was thin and short, with rugged, scruffy brown quills and black eyes that seemed to dart around nervously, as though the hedgehog were trying to envision his next move before he made it.

"Wait, I recognize him. He's the one that always fought with that fat doctor in his own world," said the female. "He's pretty powerful. Should we have Kreel call the others for backup?" she asked, glancing at the grey hedgehog.

"I always do it! Why don't you call 'em yourself?" the scruffy hedgehog, apparently named Kreel, snapped at the girl.

"Shut up," said the grey hedgehog firmly, glaring at Kreel. Kreel recoiled as if frightened, wringing his hands nervously, the corners of his mouth twitching.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean it. I didn't, I- I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it," he repeated over and over again. After a while it seemed as though he were saying it to himself. "I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it–"

The grey hedgehog put one hand on his shoulder, steadying Kreel. "Calm down," he said firmly.

"I know, I just- I- I- I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't..." Kreel clamped one hand over his mouth to stop the steady flow of words, looking ashamed of himself.

The other two ignored him and turned their attention back to Sonic, who was quite afraid by that time. At least, he was afraid of Kreel.

"Who are you?" Sonic managed to croak, his voice harsh and low. The grey and turquoise hedgehogs glanced at each other.

"We're people that need to kill you," the turquoise hedgehog said flatly. The grey hedgehog reached down and lifted Sonic to his feet, then dragged him over to the opening in the wall of the parking garage, leaning him over the edge.

"What?" Sonic gasped. "Why?"

"You're a threat to this world. If we could send you back to where you came from, we would, but killing you is the only way we know how to protect our world right now," the grey hedgehog said flatly. He eyed the rucksack suspiciously. "What's in that?" he asked Sonic.

"My stuff! Jesus, who are you people, please tell me!" Sonic gasped, struggling to break free of the grey hedgehog's grip. He wasn't very strong, but Sonic was so weak at the moment that he probably couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag.

"That gets destroyed too," the grey hedgehog said, ignoring Sonic's question and removing the rucksack from Sonic's back, tossing it to the turquoise hedgehog girl.

"I wouldn't do that, Graye. Not yet, at least," said another voice from behind them. All four of them turned towards the stairwell to see Apollo, his arms folded across his chest.

"I never expected to see you again, Apollo," said the grey hedgehog, whose name was apparently Graye.

"Heh. Graye, huh? Your parents are creative," Sonic smirked painfully at Graye. Graye scowled at Sonic and pushed him towards Kreel who caught Sonic under both arms, holding him up.

"I never expected to see you either. Or you, Ice," Apollo said, nodding at the turquoise hedgehog. Apollo glanced at Kreel distastefully. "Or you, Kreel," he said.

Kreel tried to snort, but made nothing more than a choked slathering noise with his mouth.

"Freak," Apollo muttered under his breath before walking up to Graye, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. As they came close, Apollo opened his arms as if to invite the other hedgehog into a hug.

Graye just shook his head. "I'm no friend of yours anymore, Apollo. You tried to kill me once. You tried to destroy our entire _world_ once," he said.

"Oh, come on," Apollo said, faking a hurt look. "I'm a new person! I've changed!" he said.

"Spare me your bullshit. You're a snake, Apollo. You always have been, and you always will be," Graye snorted stepping back.

"That's what I said to him," Sonic dared to pipe up.

"You're surrounded by people that want you dead. You're in no position to be _talking _right now, are you blue hedgehog?" Apollo snarled, breaking his quiet demeanor.

"How do you know each other?" Graye asked Apollo, squinting suspiciously at Sonic.

"Long story. See, Dyamisius and I found his world and tried to destroy it, which would have done all of you a big favor: your problem would have been solved. No more worries about two dimensions clashing together. But, like what happened with Dyamisius and I here, there was a hitch. Dyamisius ended up dead, and I ended up back here," Apollo said, grinning. "Home. So whatever you say, you can't deny that I was trying to help you."

"I doubt those were your intentions," Graye said, shaking his head at Apollo in disgust. "Get out of here Apollo. Don't ever let me see you again, or I swear that I'll kill you."

"No," Apollo said, smiling at Graye. "See, you want that blue hedgehog dead, and I want that blue hedgehog dead. Let me have him, and you don't have to waste a breath. Get back to your patrols, or scans, or whatever the hell you do nowadays," Apollo said, glancing at Sonic.

"Um... if anybody's gonna kill me, I'd rather it be you three than him," Sonic said, wiping blood away from a split lip before pointing at Apollo.

Graye scowled at Sonic, than turned back to Apollo. "Once again, I don't trust you. Get out of here," he hissed.

Sonic looked back and forth, from Graye to Apollo. Almost every word they had said flew right over his head, but he was able to gather that these three had once known Apollo quite well, and apparently patrolled their dimension for... _What?_ Sonic asked himself. _People from the Chaos Dimension to kill? Why?_

"Oh... so you aren't giving him to me?" Apollo asked flatly.

"He's dying by _my_ hands, not yours," Graye said. "I don't want to think of what you'd do to him before you killed him."

"Well, that's really too bad, old _buddy_. I guess I'll just have to take him from you then," Apollo said. Graye barely had time to react before Apollo swung his leg towards the side of his head. The grey hedgehog ducked, then quickly delivered a flurry of quick strikes to Apollo's torso, finishing his attack with a swift elbow smash to Apollo's chest, sending him staggering backwards.

Ice threw Sonic's rucksack to the floor and leapt into battle next to Graye, tag-taming Apollo. Kreel threw Sonic to the floor and jumped in after them, hanging on the outside of the battle and occasionally hitting Apollo with a cheap shot when his back was turned.

As quickly as his beaten body would allow him, Sonic shouldered his rucksack and began to crawl away from his four distracted enemies. If Sonic could just get to the street, he might be able to outrun them. This may be his last chance to get away alive.

--

**A/N:** Well, there's an actiony chapter for you. Next one will be too. Anyway, please review!


	8. Queen of the Sol

Apollo ducked as Ice swung at the back of his neck with one leg, then kicked her in the stomach forcibly. She staggered backwards, slid a few feet, then lunged forward again.

Apollo grabbed Kreel's wrist as he struck out at him, swung Kreel around to use him as a shield against Graye's attacks, then threw the brown hedgehog into Ice, causing them to trip over each other and collapse to the floor.

Graye kicked Apollo in the back of the knee, causing the orange hedgehog to fall to the ground. Graye wrapped an arm around Apollo's neck, then lifted him up and hurled him into the back of a car. Before Apollo had the chance to recuperate, Graye sped forward, smashing Apollo into the car once more with his shoulder.

Apollo planted both feet firmly on Graye's stomach, then pushed the other hedgehog off him. He was about to get back up when Ice landed on top of him, pinning him to the car once again and leaving him open to her attacks.

Meanwhile, Kreel had noticed Sonic slinking away and had hurried after him, grinning to himself.

Sonic stood up and staggered towards the door leading to the elevator, his hand outstretched. _Wham!_ Sonic was shoved forward, his forehead smashing into the metal door. Qith a grunt Sonic fell to the ground, then groggily lifted himself up. He slowly turned to see Kreel standing behind him, a sharp-toothed grin on his face.

"You aren't getting away that easy, Chaos freak," Kreel said. He rushed forward, pulling back his fist. Sonic ducked just in time and the brown hedgehog's fist flew over his head and slammed into the steel door, leaving an impressive dent in the metal.

Kreel howled in pain and drew back his hand, clutching his nearly broken wrist tightly. Sonic saw his opening and raised his foot, slamming it into Kreel's chest and sending him flying into the concrete wall. Kreel shook off the blow, then leapt at Sonic once more, eager to resume their fight.

Apollo rolled over so that he was pinning Ice on the back of the car. He pulled back one fist and punched her savagely in the side of the face. He aimed to repeat the attack, but she moved her head to the side, dodging the blow. She spat in Apollo's eye, then kicked him backwards when he released his grip on her to wipe the spittle away from his face.

Apollo staggered right into Graye, who turned him around and punched him in the face before pushing him back towards Ice. Ice raised one foot, kicking him in the backside and sending him back towards Graye. Graye pulled back his fist to punch Apollo once more, but the orange hedgehog blocked the blow, picked him up, and hurled him into Ice furiously.

Completely ignoring Sonic and Kreel now, Apollo lunged forward and tackled both of them backwards. The three hedgehogs stumbled back, tripping over each other's feet, when they suddenly hit the low wall on the outside edge of the parking garage. All three of them had so much momentum that the tangled knot of orange, turquoise, and grey quills went tumbling over the side, plunging down to the street below.

They were six stories above ground level, giving them only about six seconds before they smashed into the pavement. Only two seconds after they had begun falling, Ice kicked her metallic boots together, and white hot flames erupted from thrusters in the soles of the boots. She angled her feet downwards, drastically slowing their decent. She had built made them herself, a long, long time ago. They were initially just a project in a school invention convention (which she had easily won), but she modified them to hold more weight after seeing their use in combat situations. However, they were only made to hold the weight of about two people, and strained to hold all three of them up.

Ice waited until they were only a meter above the ground before kicking her heels together once more, deactivating the boots.

The three hedgehogs plummeted to the ground, landing with a _thud_ on the pavement. Graye was the first to untangle himself from the pile, quickly followed by Ice. Apollo rolled to his feet, then pounced on them once more, fueled by his rage.

Graye blocked two heavy blows from Apollo, then kicked him in the stomach, smashing him against a metal lamppost with such great force that the metal pole bent backwards and smashed its glass light against the outer wall of the parking garage.

Ice reached down to pick Apollo up, but the other hedgehog just kicked her in the stomach, then leapt up and cracked her under the chin with an uppercut.

Graye kicked at Apollo, but Apollo grabbed his foot and shoved him to the ground roughly. Apollo lifted one foot and was about to bring it down on Graye's head when the grey hedgehog snatched up one of the shards of glass on the ground and stabbed it into Apollo's thigh.

Apollo screamed and jerked his leg backwards, staggering into the middle of the street and just barely managing to dodge a speeding car. Apollo reached down and tore the shard of glass out of his leg, then hurled it at Graye furiously. Graye rolled backwards to avoid getting stabbed by the scintillating piece of glass, but was just too late. Instead of stabbing into him, the glass spun past his right cheek, slashing through the fur and flesh and giving him a grisly looking gash on his right cheekbone.

Ice, who was still shaking off the dizziness induced by the vicious uppercut Apollo had hit her with, strode over to Graye and helped him to his feet. The two hedgehogs turned to face Apollo, who was panting and clutching his leg, his cold eyes darting between the two of them.

"Go away, Apollo. Don't ever let us see you again," Ice snarled, rubbing her jaw gingerly.

Apollo just grinned and glanced at a Ferrari convertible, driven by what appeared to be a teenager that had just received his driver's license. The boy's eyes were closed, and he was bobbing his head to the music from the radio. He was also going at least twenty miles over the speed limit.

Just as the Ferrari was about to hit him, Apollo turned towards it, put both hands under the front of the car, and flipped it sideways so that it smashed into the wall, pinning both Graye and Ice behind it.

They shouted and struggled against the wight of the car, but even both of their strength combined wasn't enough to move the vehicle. Graye disgustedly pushed the teenage driver, whose head had been cracked open like an egg, out of the way.

Apollo limped towards the car, grinning. "I hear police sirens," he said, tilting his head to one side. "I wonder what they'll do when they find you?" he asked.

"The others will get us, you know that. We'll hunt you, Apollo. I won't let you cause any more harm!" Graye shouted from behind the car.

"Ooh, I'm so scared," Apollo laughed sarcastically. "You think the others will follow _you_? You don't have what it takes to be their leader and you know it. You've never had the guts to do what you do," Apollo said. Graye was silent.

"At a loss for words, old buddy?" Apollo laughed, limping towards the side door of the parking garage. He heard Ice whispering things to Graye, but he didn't care what she was saying. All Apollo cared for now was that he get to Sonic in time. He glanced up at the sixth story of the parking garage, then limped inside through the side door and rushed into the stairwell, leaping over the railings and up entire flights of steps as fast as he could with one wounded leg.

Meanwhile, Sonic was having a hard time fighting Kreel. The scruffy, brown hedgehog was weak and inexperienced in hand-to-hand combat, but Sonic was hurt so badly that he could barely move.

Kreel kicked Sonic in the stomach, slamming him into the cement wall. The brown hedgehog swung one fist at Sonic, who promptly blocked the blow and pinned Kreel's wrist under his own armpit. Kreel responded by slamming his other fist into the side of Sonic's face, then throwing him to the floor roughly. Sonic tried to get up, but lost all strength when Kreel kicked him savagely in the side of the head.

Sonic groaned and fought to stay conscious. He tried to crawl away, but Kreel put one foot on Sonic's back, stopping him.

"See now? You can't win, Chaos freak. You're dead–" Kreel was cut off as a hand grabbed him roughly by the nape of the neck.

"I've always hated you, Kreel," Apollo hissed into the brown hedgehog's ear. His hand began to glow with a pale, blue light, and Kreel thrashed wildly, his eyes becoming as round as dinner plates. Hideous gurgling and choking noises came from his throat, and Sonic turned his head towards his two enemies, daring to look at what was happening to Kreel.

He immediately wished he hadn't looked. The skin on Kreel's face had become shriveled and thin, causing his head to look like a skull covered in bits of ragged, brown quills, which were quickly being drained of their color and turning silvery-white. All the flesh on his bones seemed to be shrinking away, leaving nothing more than grey rags of skin and fur on a hideous, white skeleton. In moments the creature that was once Kreel stopped writhing, and Apollo tossed the corpse to the floor lazily.

"Worthless," he said distastefully, "and not very filling. But he'll do." Apollo watched as Sonic crawled forward a few more meters, then staggered to his feet.

Sonic clutched the wound at his side, feeling the coagulated blood in the wound spill out onto his glove. He faced down Apollo, much like he had the first time they had fought each other. He saw his own death in Apollo's eyes.

"I'm not dying without a fight," Sonic croaked. He tensed his muscles and stood still, conserving every last ounce of energy in his body for one last attack. "And I promise you that I'm _not_ dying alone," he said.

Faster than Apollo could see, Sonic pounced on the orange hedgehog, knocking him to the floor. Apollo reached for Sonic's throat, his hands glowing. Sonic grabbed Apollo's wrists with both hands, barely keeping them from touching him. With great effort, Sonic pinned both of Apollo's wrists under one of his armpits and caught hold of the orange hedgehog's throat with one hand.

Apollo grunted and tried to pull his arms out of Sonic's grasp. The pale light surrounding his hands began to fade away as he lost concentration. Finally, Apollo managed to pull one of his hands free, and grabbed hold of Sonic's throat, squeezing with all his might. His anger and hatred for Sonic distracted him from absorbing Sonic's life-force, but he didn't care anymore. As long this blue hedgehog died, as long as Apollo could get his revenge for what had happened to him six years ago, he didn't care.

Apollo managed to push Sonic backwards just enough to stand up, but that was all Apollo needed. He bent Sonic backwards, forcing the cobalt blue hedgehog to his knees. Sonic gasped and struggled, but it was no use. He tightened his grip on Apollo's throat, hoping to strangle him before he himself was choked to death.

_Just keep going_, Sonic told himself. Long ago, that's what he used to tell himself while fighting Eggman's machines. _Just keep on running. You'll get there eventually. Keep running. Keep going. Keep fighting_. Sonic's vision began to cloud over. _Keep running. Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep running. Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep running... keep going... keep fighting... keep... running..._ A red haze descended over Sonic's vision, and he felt no more.

* * *

Sonic's eyes fluttered open, and he found himself staring at a white-washed ceiling. He groaned and tried to move, but found that he was too weak. Looking down, Sonic saw that he was lying on a narrow bed with a baby blue blanket covering him. A slow, methodic beeping was coming from Sonic's left. Turning, Sonic saw that the noise was coming from a cardiac monitor, which was beeping in sync with his own pulse.

A hospital. Sonic was in a hospital. His green eyes traveled down to the floor, where a tattered, brown rucksack lay half-open. Grimacing slightly, Sonic realized that it was his third and final day here, and Sonic hadn't done what he had came to this dimension to do. After thinking for a few moments more, Sonic realized that he also had no way to get back home! The Chaos Emeralds were dull and powerless. What was he to do?

"Hey, you," said a familiar voice from the corner of the room. Sonic painfully turned his head towards the voice. When his eyes settled on the figure who had spoken, he blinked, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Sitting in a chair in the corner with small smile on her face was Blaze the Cat. It was the first friendly face Sonic had seen in this new dimension. Sonic opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't think of anything to say.

"What... how... did you..."

Reserved as she was, Blaze had to grin. "Hi Sonic," she said. Sonic blinked. So she _did_ remember him. That was a relief.

"Hi," he croaked. He didn't know what else to say. He had a million questions for her, but couldn't think of how to ask them. _How did he get in a hospital? Where was Apollo? What happened to the other two hedgehogs that were there?_ Eventually he just asked, "How did you find me?"

"How could I not? There were late-breaking reports all over the news of two hedgehogs fighting in the middle of the city. I recognized you from one of the cell phone videos that a witness showed the news station," Blaze said.

Sonic licked his lips. "Did you bring me here?" he asked Blaze.

"No, an ambulance did that. I was just able to drive away that..." Blaze paused, "... _thing_, you were fighting."

"His name is Apollo. He's an asshole," Sonic snickered. His laughter was cut short as pain surged up his spine and into his skull.

Blaze looked a bit alarmed. "You know him?" she asked, her eyes widening.

Sonic tried to shrug, but couldn't. "It's a long story. If I live, maybe I'll tell you about it later," he said. Blaze sighed and walked over to the side of his bed before laying a hand on the blue hedgehog's shoulder.

"Get some rest, Sonic. We'll talk about things after you're feeling better," she said. Without a word, Sonic complied, slipping into a deep sleep. For the first time in a long time, he wasn't troubled by nightmares.

--

**A/N: **Whee!


	9. Explanations

**A/N:** Before anyone starts reading this, I would like to point out a few things with this story. First off, this story's predecessor, The Hour of Chaos, was supposed to take place _before_ Sonic the Hedgehog next gen and any games after that, but _after_ Sonic Rush. Henceforth, Sonic and Silver haven't met yet, so they don't know each other.

Also, Sonic the Hedgehog next gen really screwed up the double dimensions thing for me: in Sonic next gen, Blaze's dimension was supposed to be Earth in the future, which doesn't make any sense when you think about it- where are the Chaos Emeralds in her dimension, and where the hell did the Sol Emeralds some from? Why did the two dimensions begin destroying each other in Sonic Rush if Blaze simply traveled through time?

So I said, "screw that, this doesn't take place after Sonic next gen anyway" and went back to the idea that Blaze's dimension is an alternate world. I know it's against the "rules of canon" or whatever really die-hard fanboys call it, and forgive me, but I've done it. That being said, I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Oh, and I'll say it now so I won't have to put it at the bottom: please review!

--

For the next few days, Sonic was confined to his bed in the hospital, despite his efforts to convince the doctors that he was "fine". Actually he wasn't fine. The doctors told him that when he had been brought in, he had a concussion, three cracked ribs, and a deep stab wound in his left side. He was only just beginning to mend.

To relieve Sonic of some of the boredom, he was allowed to play car racing games. Because of his incredible reflex speeds, he was easily able to win every race on the first try. To him, the cars seemed to be going in slow motion.

Blaze frequently visited, accompanied by a friend of hers named Silver, who she claimed had helped her drive off Apollo. Sonic thought he was friendly enough.

One day Blaze, Sonic, and Silver were all sitting around Sonic's bed, talking and playing a first person shooting video game. Sonic was relieved to find that Blaze could play video games well, as none of the other girls his age in his world seemed to be interested. Rouge would only play if it was some sort of stealth based game, Wave always seemed offended and asked if he thought she had nothing better to do with life, and Amy just plain sucked.

But here Blaze was, hitting Sonic's character with headshot after headshot. Silver occasionally joined in, but mostly watched them play. That certain day, Sonic was drinking a glass of orange juice as he played.

"So Silver... what do you do? I mean, do you have a job or something?" Sonic asked after taking a sip of the orange juice and placing it on a chair next to his bed, which Silver had recently vacated.

Silver glanced at blaze, then shrugged at Sonic. "Oh, you know... just stuff. I hang around Blaze a lot," he said.

"Oh, come on!" Blaze cried as Sonic blew her character up with a grenade in the game. Then she looked at Sonic. "Silver likes to think that he's like my bodyguard... when everything is normal. If there's any trouble in the city, he's usually there to clean it up," she said.

"I don't think that," Silver protested.

"I know you do! Don't try to deny it! You're always making sure that I'm okay and nobody is bothering me if somebody sees me in public and gets excited," Blaze snickered a bit. Silver just shrugged.

"Just caring for my friend, that isn't a crime," he said.

"No it isn't. You should be glad that he cares that much, Blaze," Sonic said, glancing at her. In that split second that his eyes left the TV screen, Blaze shot Sonic's rust colored mongoose soldier down in the game. "Damn," Sonic muttered.

"I do care. Thank you Silver," Blaze said, glancing at the white hedgehog.

"You're very welcome," Silver said with satisfaction, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. Sonic nodded in approval at the two and blindly reached for his glass of orange juice, accidentally hitting it with his knuckles and tipping it sideways.

The blue hedgehog blinked in alarm and tried to reach out for it, but it had already tipped so far to the side that it was beyond saving. Then miraculously, the glass swivelled around and lay flat on the wooden chair once again, much to Sonic's wonder. Not a drop of orange juice had been spilled.

Sonic looked up to see Silver, his eyes locked on the glass. Silver glanced up to see Sonic staring at him. "What?" Silver asked.

"How'd you do that?" Sonic asked.

"Do... what?" Silver asked.

Blaze paused the video game, then looked at Silver. "It's okay to tell him you know. He knows about my fire ability, and he's used to things like that," she said.

Silver looked uncertainly at Sonic for a moment, then slowly raised one hand towards the glass. Slowly, a blue ring of light began to shine out from Silver's palm, as though originating from inside his hand. The glass of orange juice was lifted into the air as though by invisible hands, floating towards Sonic. When it came close enough to his face, Sonic reached out and grabbed it out of midair, and the blue hedgehog felt the force holding it in the air slacken.

Sonic looked up at Silver in amazement. "How did you do that?" he asked in awe.

"Telekinesis," Silver said. "I've had it since I was born. Kind of like Blaze's pyrokinesis." He expected Sonic to look frightened or call him a freak, but instead Sonic just laughed.

"That's awesome! Man, what I'd give to have that power. Good thing you're with the good guys. You could practically rip the planet apart with your mind alone, right?" Sonic asked.

"Well... not exactly. There's a limit to how big of an object I can lift," Silver said.

For the rest of the day Sonic asked Silver about his power, which Sonic found fascinating for some reason. Blaze couldn't figure out why. After all, Sonic could move faster than anything else she knew of, he was friends with Tails, a technical genius, and Knuckles, who possessed superhuman strength. But he was getting along with Silver, so she decided not to think about it.

After a few more days Sonic was allowed to walk around again, much to his relief. Two days after that he was released from the hospital. The moment he got outside, Sonic stretched, asked Blaze and silver politely if they could wait at the entrance for a few minutes, then took off running down the street. After only two minutes he came back, grinning slightly.

"Phew, I needed that after being cooped up in there all those days. Thanks for waiting," Sonic said. Despite his seemingly carefree smile, Silver noticed that he was clutching the bandage over the stab wound in his side, and he was breathing quite heavily.

"Are you alright?" he asked Sonic nervously.

"Me? I'm good, thanks," Sonic said, trying not to worry Silver or Blaze.

Blaze and Silver contemplated taking a taxi to get to Blaze's apartment, but Sonic insisted on walking, despite the fact that their destination was halfway across the city. Both Silver and Blaze reluctantly agreed.

While they walked, Sonic asked them much about what had happened after Blaze's Dimension and Sonic's Dimension had separated after they had defeated both Eggman and Eggman Nega.

Blaze recounted how Nega had been transported back into the Sol Dimension, where he had been captured and arrested by the authorities. He had been almost received the death penalty for his many heinous crimes, but Blaze had managed to stop this and he was instead sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.

For two years Nega remained in prison, when suddenly he began complaining of feeling incredibly exhausted and short of breath. Eventually he had been removed from prison and taken to a hospital, where it was discovered that he had seven malignant tumors on both sides of his lungs: Nega had lung cancer. He refused any medical treatment and died shortly after.

"It was surprising to say the least. After all these years of fighting him, he died from cancer. Despite everything he'd done, I couldn't help feeling a little bit bad for him," Blaze said. Sonic tried to figure out what to say, but couldn't. "I'm sorry for your loss" would be a joke since Nega was Blaze arch-enemy, and "good thing that fatass isn't getting up again" was much too abrasive. Instead Sonic was silent, and none of them spoke for the rest of the walk.

"Well here we are," Blaze said after about another hour walking. Sonic squinted against the sun as he looked up at the tall, modern looking apartment building. The outer walls appeared to be made of some sort of pink rock, and the apartments on the upper floors had wide balconies. The building looked nice.

Blaze led Silver and Sonic inside and to one of the elevators. Sonic shuffled on the velvet carpet that was laid on the floor of the elevator on the short trip to the top floor. Although the old turtle (a.k.a. Apollo) had told Sonic that Blaze lived in a modest apartment building, but modest wasn't the word sonic would use. It wasn't unnecessarily extravagant, but it most certainly wasn't middle class.

Sonic followed Blaze and Silver into a large apartment with white walls, a decent sized kitchen, a large living room, a master bedroom and a guest bedroom. Sonic nervously rubbed his hands together, wondering if he needed to display proper etiquette if he were in the home of a queen. The problem was that he had no idea what "proper etiquette" was. Actually, he had only word one suit in his entire life and he had hated it.

"So," he said slowly. He looked up at Blaze, smiling slightly. "You have a nice place," he complimented.

"Thank you. Silver lives here too you know," she said, glancing at the white hedgehog. Sonic nodded at Silver, who smiled in return.

Sonic glanced at the large, flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. "It's very... clean..." he said, gesturing towards the apartment in general.

"Thanks." Silver said, a bit amused at Sonic's nervousness.

"Well sit down. Make yourself at home. I guess you'll be staying here as long as you're in the city... and our... world," Blaze said slowly. Sonic nodded in thanks and strode over to the kitchen counter, placing his rucksack on the floor and sitting on one of the wooden stools.

"So where have you been staying before you met us? How long have you been here?" Silver asked, walking over to the refrigerator and taking out a plastic bottle of cranberry juice and pouring himself a glass.

"Oh, you know... here, there. I tried sleeping on a bench the first night, but I just ended up putting three kids in a hospital," Sonic said, giving Blaze and Silver a "don't ask" look. "As for how long I've been here, it was about three days before I met Apollo, then I was in the hospital for about a week. So in total, I've been here ten days, not including today," he added.

Blaze took the bottle of juice from Silver and poured herself a glass, then held out the bottle to Sonic. "Want any?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, no thanks," Sonic said, shaking his head.

Blaze sat down across from Sonic, sipping the cranberry juice before putting it down on the counter top. "So now for the explanations," she said, looking Sonic straight in the eye. "How did you get here?" she asked.

"Well, it's not a story that I can summarize really. It goes back six years ago," Sonic said. He gestured for Silver to sit down, telling them both that his story wasn't going to take a mere ten minutes to tell.

Sonic recounted the entire journey, from start to finish. He told of how Robotnik had attacked Angel Island for the Master Emerald, the mad scientist's death, and the parting of the heroes afterwards. He told them about how there were news stories that began popping up frequently about creature sightings, giant electrical storms, and even entire town leveled to the ground. Eventually the larger cities were stormed by apparent clones of Chaos Zero, which had been created by Dyamisius after somehow coming in contact with the original Chaos.

Sonic went on to tell of the reunition of Teams Sonic and the Dark, and the capture of Knuckles by Chaos Clones on Prison Island. Sonic, Rouge and Shadow had barely managed to rescue Knuckles from Apollo, who had seemingly gained control of GUN through intimidation of their Commander and had held him captive at a GUN HQ in Grand Metropolis. The heroes went on to the ruined Prison Island to collect the final Chaos Emeralds to keep Apollo from getting to it, where Sonic battled and defeated Apollo and eventually Dyamisius, who had begun the process of absorbing Earth. Although Blaze and Silver were expecting Sonic to end his story there, he didn't.

Sonic continued on about the war and how the now mindless and animalistic Chaos Clones had taken control of Earth. He told of the great battle at Tails' Workshop two years prior, which had grown into a full-fledged base and had long served as the Freedom Fighters' headquarters. After losing the battle and becoming overrun, the Freedom Fighters were forced to transfer their base to the last safe haven they would ever have: the Space Colony ARK. Sonic continued telling about the rest of the war, concluding the story with Tails' discovery of the Sol Dimension, Sonic Chaos Controlling himself to Memorial Park and discovering the dead Chaos Emeralds, his battle with Apollo and his meeting with the three mysterious hedgehogs.

When Sonic had started his story it had been one thirty in the afternoon. When he finished, it was almost seven forty-five.

Silver and Blaze stared at Sonic in awe.

"God, I'm... I'm sorry to hear about this," Silver said, frowning. Sonic had no doubt that he did feel terrible: Silver was a decent person. But he hadn't been to Sonic's world and never knew any of the people like Blaze had, and Blaze was dumbstruck.

The first thing she asked when Sonic finished his story was, "Is Cream okay?"

Sonic nodded. When Blaze had first fallen into Sonic's world through a rip in the space-time continuum, she had met and befriended Cream the Rabbit. In a way, Cream had become Blaze's friend much the way Tails was Sonic's friend.

"I'm so sorry, Sonic," Blaze said. "This never should have happened."

"Well... it did," Sonic said. He tried to smile, but all that came to his face was a grimace. Then he looked at Blaze, frowning. "Now it's time for you to explain some things to me, if you can," he said.

"Whatever you need explaining, Sonic," Blaze said. Sonic nodded.

"Okay then. How do you know Apollo?" the blue hedgehog asked.

Blaze and Silver glanced at each other. At last Blaze said, "It's not as long of a story as yours was, but it's kind of long." She went on with her story, and Sonic relaxed, preparing himself for all the answers to his questions.

"I did my research about Apollo, and it seems as though he is- or was- connected with the hedgehogs that attacked you in the parking garage. See, long ago when he was young he befriended the two hedgehogs that attacked you: Graye and Ice. They formed somewhat of a gang I suppose. They were all still in highschool.

"Apollo was always the one who took pleasure from bullying the younger kids, and I even came to hear that many people he interacted with ended up hurt very seriously, or even dead. A kid that had laughed at him in a gym class was found behind school with his nose shattered and one of his eyes split open. A girl that had snickered at him when he asked her on a date was pushed in front of a bus and killed. Even a math teacher that gave him a D- on a test 'tripped' and fell down the stairwell in the school, breaking his neck and paralyzing him from the waist down.

"Graye, on the other hand, was the cool and collected one. He steadied Apollo's hand more than once, and tried his best to keep him in line. He was afraid of Apollo, but he never showed it. He stuck up for the younger kids who were picked on even if Apollo didn't. He was always practicing martial arts and watching wrestling, and made the mistake of teaching Apollo how to fight while he was teaching Ice.

"And that leads into her. Ice was the brains of the group. She was a most certainly a genius, and was Apollo's advisor of sorts. She plays one of the biggest parts in this story. When still in highschool, she discovered another dimension: your dimension. She found anomalies in the energy fields created by some of the beings in the Chaos Dimension, as she called it for the dimension's source of energy: the Chaos Emeralds. This anomaly gave some beings such a burst of energy that they literally jumped from their dimension into ours. You call this Chaos Control, and can do it whenever you like when you have one of the Chaos Emeralds.

"Ice discovered that the boundary between the dimensions deteriorated the longer a being from the Chaos Dimension stayed in our dimension, the Sol Dimension, and vice-versa. In the process of merging together, these two dimensions would eventually cancel each other out, destroying both. Being the brash psychopath that he is, Apollo decided that they had the 'responsibility' to kill any beings from the Chaos Dimension that entered ours to keep both worlds safe. The three dropped out of highschool and began forming a gang of thirteen members, which they called the Pantheon.

"This gang, or cult, or whatever you'd call it made it their mission to destroy anything related to the Chaos Dimension that ended up in our world. The worst part was that they were lead by Apollo, who often needlessly killed people that had merely interacted with the person from the Chaos Dimension. They caused a lot of trouble when I was younger.

"Then, to make matters worse, along came this 'Dyamisius' thing you've spoken about. Apollo foolishly claimed it was from the Chaos Dimension and tried to kill it himself, only to be captured and forced into the creature's service. Just like in your story, Dyamisius and Apollo tried to absorb our planet, but Silver and I were able to drive them off. We banished them from the planet, and left them to float away into space. Graye took up the mantle of the Pantheon leader, and they dropped off the radar, preferring to act quietly after the trouble Apollo had caused. But I guess that they're back now," she said grimly, concluding her story.

Sonic frowned and leaned forward. "How do you know all this?" he asked quietly.

Blaze sighed and looked at her right palm, and flames slowly began to glow and leap up from her glove. She made a fist and the flames disappeared. "Apollo's father was a doctor and a good friend of my father. And of me. He was a great man, and I was so sorry that he had to watch his son turn into the monster that he is today. He knew everything about Apollo's story, and I suppose he was planning on telling my father about it. But my father died, so Apollo's father, Eugene the Hedgehog, told me instead," she said, looking at Sonic sadly. "Eugene died not too long ago. He was old and miserable. I felt so sorry for him."

Sonic sighed. "That story's pretty... shocking. I never even thought of where Apollo had come from or who he used to be before this all happened," he said.

Blaze nodded, then glanced at the clock above the stove. It was nine o'clock. "Well it's getting late. We should be getting to bed, but you must be hungry," she said, looking at Sonic. The blue hedgehog nodded vigorously, and Silver strode over to the fridge, taking out three frozen dinners. He lay them out on the table in front of Sonic.

"So, what would you prefer? Food that tastes like cow shit, food that tastes like dog shit, or food that tastes like chicken shit?" he asked. Sonic pondered sarcastically and Blaze watched him, amused.

"Well, I've always been one for chicken shit, but I'll try something new this time. How about cow shit?" he asked, pointing to the box showing a chicken leg that looked as though it were made of rubber and broccoli that looked as though somebody had upchucked on it. Apparently it was called "cheese sauce".

"You got it," Silver said, opening the box, taking out the plastic tray, and heating it in the microwave.

After they all ate, they chose where they would be sleeping. Sonic offered to sleep on the couch, but Silver insisted he sleep in his room instead. "You're the one who just got out of the hospital," the white hedgehog said. Sonic didn't argue.

He staggered groggily into the bedroom after changing into a pair of pajamas Silver let him borrow, grinning at the large bed. It had been too long since he had slept in an actual bed before.

"Sonic?" said Blaze from the doorway.

"Yeah?"

"We'll figure this out tomorrow, I promise. I'll try to think of a way to get the Chaos Emeralds recharged. Even if you want to stay here... you can't. Our dimensions wouldn't be able to handle it," Blaze said.

"I understand. Thanks Blaze, you're a good friend. G'night," Sonic said.

"Night."

Sonic staggered over to the bed and crawled under the covers. He was asleep within seconds of touching the mattress. If he had nightmares that night, he didn't remember them.


	10. The Only Way

Sonic awoke slowly, trying to clear his mind of the images still imprinted in his memory. _Apollo holding up the shriveled body of Kreel, the two glowing, red eyes that had passed over his vision when Apollo had first attacked him, Graye holding him over the ledge of the parking garage, about to throw him over_.

Sonic shook his head and instinctively reached for the side of his bed, where he had left his shredded army rucksack. It was still there, much to his relief. Why was he even worrying about it anyway? He was in Blaze the Cat's apartment, it wasn't like she was going to steal anything from him.

"Sonic! Are you awake yet?" called Blaze's voice from the living room. Sonic groaned and rolled out of bed, shuffling tiredly into the living room. "There you are, finally," Blaze said. Sonic frowned, noticing that she was already dressed.

"What time is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Almost twelve thirty," said Silver from the couch. Sonic looked at the large TV on the wall, displaying what looked to Sonic like an action movie. At the moment two racoon cops were pursuing a group of masked terrorists down a highway in a car chase scene.

"I slept that late?" Sonic asked in awe. He was usually an early riser. Perhaps it had something to do with him sleeping in a real bed for the first time in almost six years.

"Like a rock," Blaze said. "I considered taking the Chaos Emeralds out of your bag, but I decided not to. I did some research on ways you may be able to recharge them though," she said.

"Oh yeah? How about I hook them up to a power plant and jolt them a few times?" Sonic asked jokingly, sitting down at the kitchen counter.

"You'd need all the electricity on the planet to recharge the Chaos Emeralds, and then some," Blaze said seriously, frowning. "I thought there might be a way to transfer energy from the Sol Emeralds that I have into them, but that wouldn't be a very good idea. Plus, it would probably destroy them. Chaos and Sol energy aren't even meant to be in the same dimension, let alone the same physical object. It might destroy the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic nodded. "Well, not that I'm not in a rush to figure this out and get back home, I'm hungry, and I'm starting to feel the need for a morning jog, as is a habit of mine," he said.

Blaze nodded understandingly, then gestured to a few bowls next to the kitchen sink and a box of _Honey Os_ cereal before plopping herself down on the couch next to Silver. She gestured to the movie. "Can't you watch anything better than this?" she asked in disgust as she watched a police car go off a makeshift ramp made of a crushed tractor trailer, do a barrel roll in midair, then land on the ground perfectly alright.

"Okay. Would you rather watch the cooking channel or soap operas?" Silver asked, pausing the movie. On screen, a terrorist rabbit was frozen in midair as it leapt from the back of a jeep towards the police car with a knife in its hand. Blaze just grunted and shook her head.

After finishing breakfast, Sonic changed into the least shredded articles of clothing from his old rucksack and headed outside for his jog. The wound in his side still throbbed a bit when he moved too quickly- he would have to pace himself when running. Sonic looked up at the clear, afternoon sky and breathed in deeply. _Here's hoping that I'm not attacked by any raging psychopaths today_, he thought to himself, stretching.

He started off at a slow jog, then picked up his pace a bit until he was running a little faster than a car would go on a highway. He tried to go faster, but his side twinged sharply and he decided not to push himself any further than that.

While he ran, Sonic took a look at his surroundings. Before he had been too busy asking for directions and fighting off insane villains to try and connect places in the Sol Dimension to places in the Chaos Dimension. The most prominent difference between Southern City and Central City was that there was no White House in Southern City. However, he did notice a few landmarks that gave him a feeling of nostalgia, such as Memorial Park taking the place of Middle Park or a few tall buildings owned by cigarette companies and electronics industries.

It was almost one thirty by the time Sonic stopped to rest a bit. He saw a small, outdoor café on the corner of the street and strode over to it, breathing heavily. After a few moments a pretty chipmunk waitress came over to him and asked him what he would like.

"Water please," Sonic panted, grateful for the shade of the umbrella attached to the table he was sitting at.

"Okay, one moment," the waitress said. She headed into a small building before returning with a bottle of water. Sonic thanked her and paid for the drink before opening the bottle and guzzling all of the water in one gulp. After he was finished he placed the empty bottle on the table and sighed. He hoped that the week he had spent cooped up in the hospital hadn't damaged his endurance.

After waiting for a few more moments he stood up and tossed the water bottle into a recycling bin against a wall before beginning to walk away. _I guess it's time to be getting back to the apartment– _Sonic's thoughts were cut off as he ran into another figure, slightly shorter than him.

The figure, a red and green hedgehog, began mumbling his apologies before catching sight of Sonic. "You..." he said softly.

"What?" Sonic asked, frowning.

"You're alive! You shouldn't be alive! So they... they didn't finish you!" the red hedgehog exclaimed, his teeth peeling back from his lips in a snarl of anger and fear.

"I... guess not," Sonic said. His eyes widened suddenly, for the red hedgehog immediately reached into his back pocket, bringing out a long, thin knife.

"I'll finish it for them!" he snarled, thrusting the knife forward. It would have sank into Sonic's gut, but once again his lightning-quick reflexes saved him. Sonic swung his forearm downward across his body, knocking the other hedgehog's wrist to the side.

Immediately a dozen people leaped up from their seats, gasping. The red hedgehog looked like he was about to make another move, but his hazel eyes darted nervously to the left and right. Somebody looked like they were dialing for the police on their cell phone. Spitting at Sonic's feet, the red hedgehog turned and hurried into the crowd, vanishing from sight.

Sonic grimaced and slowly began to walk away, then broke into a run when he was clear of the crowd of people. _Apparently I can't go outside without these Pantheon guys trying to murder me. That is, if that guy was from the Pantheon. If not, I guess I can't go outside without _anyone_ trying to murder me_, Sonic thought grimly to himself.

He finally stopped when he reached Blaze's apartment building. It was about two o'clock, and she and Silver were probably wondering where he was. Sonic hurried into the stairwell, deciding that the elevator would be too slow. He had taken it with Blaze and Silver yesterday, but it was only to be polite.

Sonic walked into the unlocked apartment with his eyes glued to the floor. It was just a habit he had developed over the past six years– he remembered too many embarrassing moments when he had accidentally walked in on a young couple making out in a room.

He didn't have to worry about Silver and Blaze doing that though. At least, he _hoped_ he didn't. When Sonic looked up he saw that Silver was outside, leaning against the balcony railing, while Blaze was sitting at the kitchen counter surrounded by newspapers, printouts from the internet, magazine clippings, and the Sol Emeralds, which she kept very close to herself.

"There you are. Where were you, I thought you were just going out for a jog?" she asked, looking up at him.

"A wake-up jog for me is circling the city a couple times. As for where I was, I went to the highway, the slums, Memorial Park, and to a café on the corner of a street. Oh, did I mention I almost got stabbed?" Sonic asked, sitting down across from Blaze.

Blaze blinked in surprise. "What? What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Some guy at the café I mentioned seemed to recognize me. He said 'I'll finish you myself' and tried to stab me. I guessed he was from that Pantheon cult you told me about the other night," Sonic said. He raised an eyebrow at Blaze. "I've noticed that you have trouble containing crime in your world. Or at least in this city," he said.

Blaze scowled. "I moved here because this city was known for having the highest crime rate in the world. I've devoted all of my efforts into cleaning it up, but it doesn't seem to be working. The rich just seem to be getting richer, and the poor just keep getting poorer!" she exclaimed.

"You aren't a bad leader. It's hard to change things after they've gotten to a certain point, sometimes even impossible," Sonic said. He immediately grimaced, remembering the state of his own planet. _I would know_, he thought to himself.

Blaze sighed and looked down at the stacks of papers in front of her. "Well... thank you," she said. Then she seemed to try to change the subject. "Silver and I have done a lot of research about how to recharge your emeralds while you were gone. Silver started complaining about the work a little while ago, which is why he's now out there doing nothing," Blaze said, pointing to the balcony.

"Figures. Almost everybody here seems either insane or incredibly rude. Did you find anything good on your own?" Sonic asked.

"Well... yes and no. To recharge the Chaos Emeralds you would need the approximate amount of energy given off by the sun each year for about eight years," Blaze said.

"Wow."

"I know. The option of using electricity is out. So is trying to transfer the energy from the Sol Emeralds into the Chaos Emeralds- that would be like giving somebody the wrong blood type in a blood transfusion," Blaze said.

"How about absorbing energy from the sun _and_ using electricity. That ought to charge them up pretty good," Sonic suggested.

"You don't understand. If you did that, the sun would burn out, every city on the planet would lose all its electricity, and the Chaos Emeralds would only be recharged about halfway," Blaze said.

Sonic scratched his head thoughtfully. "Then what?" he asked. "How do I get out of this place? I've already stayed long past my deadline. I'm afraid Tails may already have been kicked out of the ARK and into space!"

Blaze sighed. "I... think I have a way. I'm not completely sure if it will work, but it's worth a shot," she said.

"What is it? I'm all ears, Blaze," Sonic said, leaning forward. The Sol Emeralds caught his attention for a brief moment, and for the first time in his life he got to see them up close. They were rectangular in shape, unlike the Chaos Emeralds, and where the Chaos Emeralds seemed to glow with color from their core, the Sol Emeralds seemed to have tiny sparks of colorful energy flickering up from their surfaces.

Blaze reached for one of the newspapers and held it up to Sonic for him to read. Sonic squinted at the article she was pointing to and read the headline:

__

MOBSTER HENRI THE TOMCAT HOLDS BALL AT SOUTHERN CITY HALL

Below the headline was a picture of a middle aged cat standing on the steps outside a tall, white building, scowling at a reporter that was holding a microphone up to his face. Sonic looked up at Blaze, frowning.

"Wow, you do have problems with crime in this city. If he's a mobster, why isn't he in jail?" Sonic asked.

Blaze shook her head and threw the newspaper back down on the counter top. "Believe me, I've tried to get him arrested. It never works. He's the wealthiest person in the city, and one of the wealthiest men in the world," she said.

"Right. And how exactly does this relate to my problem?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you remember the Master Emerald from your world? It was able to nullify the energy in the Chaos Emeralds, or jumpstart them and give them extra power. In my world, there is something like that too: people call it the Astrum Emerald. This guy, Henri the Tomcat, came into possession of it a long time ago. It's a long shot, but we may be able to convince him to help us use it to charge the Chaos Emeralds," Blaze said.

"Why would it be so hard? All he'd have to do is let me see the thing, recharge the emeralds, and I'd be on my merry way," Sonic said.

Blaze frowned. "It doesn't work that way, Sonic. In your world, only Knuckles can control the power of the Master Emerald because he is an ancestor of its original keepers. The family line that guarded the Astrum Emerald has long since died out," she said.

Sonic buried his face in his hands, exasperated. "My God, can't anything be simple nowadays?" he groaned.

"It gets better... and worse," Blaze said. "I think that family line knew that they were going to die out sooner or later, most likely sooner. They built a shrine, not much different than the Shrine of the Master Emerald, to hold it. If the emerald is in the shrine, anybody can harness its power, regardless of their ancestry. The shrine is in a museum right here in the city," Blaze said.

Sonic looked up. "So that's how it gets better? How does it get worse?" he asked.

"When I said that Henri 'came into possession' of the Astrum Emerald, I meant that he _stole_ it. The idiot displays it right into the main hall of his home, he just insists that it's a different emerald than the Astrum Emerald. He doesn't fool me though. We may want him to return the Astrum Emerald to its shrine, but if it works, and it will, that would prove that he is guilty of at least one thing: stealing it," Blaze said.

Sonic grimaced. "Oh, boy. That's a problem," he said. He looked up at Blaze, frowning. "Wait... if we want to talk to him, we don't have to go to that ball thing, do we?" he asked, mortified.

Blaze sighed. "He definitely won't allow us into his home, so that's the only way. I received an invitation to it. It's right here," she said, holding an opened letter up.

"I thought you said that you and this Henri guy hated each other!" Sonic said.

"We do, but I'm the queen of this world and I'm in the city. If he invites every wealthy or powerful figure in the city except me it would look bad for his reputation," Blaze said, looking at the letter in quiet amusement.

At that moment Silver decided to walk back into the room.

"Oh, hey! Thanks for helping me figure out how to get back home!" Sonic said sarcastically, giving Silver a big, phony thumbs up.

Silver frowned. "I did help, I did a lot of research," he said.

"But you got bored of helping and decided to stand on a balcony. I understand."

Now Silver scowled. He looked like he was about to say something back, but Blaze cut into the argument.

"There's something you should see," she said.

"What?" Silver asked, turning to the cat. Blaze held out the letter from Henri, and the white hedgehog strode over and took it from her.

After reading it, he frowned at Blaze. "You never showed me that," he said.

"That's because I just got it," Blaze said. "The ball is tonight. It's the only way we're going to get in touch with Henri."

"Tonight? Jeez, that's pretty short notice, isn't it?" Sonic asked in amazement.

Silver scowled. Sonic could tell that he didn't like the tomcat very much. "Not for a person like Henri. He expects a lot from other people. Too much." Then he turned to Blaze again. "Why do you want to see him?" Silver asked, glancing at the letter again.

"I think he has something that can recharge the Chaos Emeralds. The Astrum Emerald," Blaze said, taking the letter back from him.

Silver grimaced. "It won't be easy to convince him to..."

"It's the only way," Blaze said. Then she glanced at Sonic and Silver. "The ball starts at four o'clock, and it's two-thirty right now. We should get ready," she said.

Sonic and Silver exchanged glances, forgetting their recent argument. Neither of them had any desire to go, but they both knew that Blaze was right- it was the only way.

--

**A/N: **There are storm warnings all along the East Coast, so all I have time to say is: please review!


	11. The Cat's Eye

"Ugh, come on. I don't think I even know where my arms are supposed to go through," complained Sonic, examining a snowy white dress shirt Silver had lent him for the ball.

"Don't be stupid, it's just a shirt," Blaze said, taking it from him and holding it by the back of the collar. Sonic had been holding the left sleeve, trying to fit his head through the smaller hole. His quills had already poked numerous holes in the material, which was why he had to wear a jacket to cover those as well.

"I just don't get why I have to dress like some yuppie," Sonic scowled, putting his arms through the sleeves and clumsily starting to button it.

"It's called formal clothing. That's why I'm wearing _this_," Blaze said, pointing to the lilac colored dress she was wearing.

"At least you look kinda hot in that, I look like a dweeb," said Sonic, walking into the apartment bathroom and looking at the himself in the mirror.

"I'm ready," said Silver, walking into the living room from his bedroom and holding his arms out. He was wearing a black suit with a white shirt underneath, almost completely covered by a long, silver tie. His usual boots were replaced by black dress shoes. "How to I look?" he asked nervously.

"Other than gay, pretty good," snickered Sonic. He looked at Silver again to see the white hedgehog scowling at him. "Well, you do. Alright, alright, sorry. What I meant was that you look like Don Corleone," Sonic joked.

"What? Who's that?" asked Silver, the scowl on his face turning into a frown.

"You know, from _The Godfather_? 'I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse'?" Sonic asked, blinking at Silver.

"What are you talking about?" asked Blaze.

Sonic just shook his head, remembering that the movies made in the Chaos Dimension didn't exist in the Sol Dimension. "Nothing, never mind. That was just a line a character said from a classic movie in my world," said Sonic.

It took about another half hour of griping and resistance, but Blaze and Silver finally got Sonic to wear the clothes they had given him for the ball. When they stepped outside, the first question Sonic asked was, "Can we run there?"

"No," snapped Blaze. "I called for a limo to pick us up. We can't just _run_ to a formal party, Sonic."

Sonic just grunted and waited for the limo to pick them up. In truth, the ride wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. The seats were plush and comfortable, the windows were tinted, there was a light on the ceiling of the car, and a miniature plasma screen on one wall to watch television on.

"So, uh, how many people are really going to be there?" Sonic asked.

Blaze shrugged at Silver, then turned back to Sonic. "Some hundreds, maybe a thousand," she said.

"Oh, boy. Now I _really _can't wait," said Sonic, his ears drooping.

While they rode, the three talked about what they were going to say, what to ask this "Henri" character. If they could find him at all, that was.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll find us. He basically has to, after all. I'm the queen. It would be bad for his image if he didn't greet me personally, remember?" Blaze asked.

"Well, what do I do if things go crazy? I mean, this guy is supposed to be some kind of crime lord, he's gotta have armed bodyguards. Silver has crazy mind powers that can stop bullets in midair, you can set things on fire just by thinking about it, and look at me! I can _run_ fast, and I've got a bag of rocks! Yay me!" Sonic said, holding up the black leather shoulder bag he was carrying the Chaos Emeralds with.

"Yes, he probably does have armed bodyguards. But Henri isn't that stupid. He wouldn't are have a shootout in a ball full of important people, he would get thrown in jail in a second, all signs would point to him," Blaze said.

"Alright, so maybe he won't kill us there. But what if he says, 'Why don't you take a ride in my limousine?' and the next thing we know we have garrote wires wrapped around our necks?" Sonic asked.

"I think you've watched too many gangster films, Sonic. That isn't the way it goes in real life. The Cat's Eye is more subtle than that," Silver said, looking out the window. "We're here," he said.

Sonic frowned. "Cat's Eye?" he asked.

"Henri's gang, or whatever you'd call it. It's what they call themselves," Silver said.

"Oh, right. They all need names. Tattaglia, Corleone, Goodfellas, and all that jazz. Wait a minute, what are we going to say to him? I don't think we've figured that out yet," said Sonic.

"We'll improvise. Come on," said Blaze as the chauffeur emerged from the drivers seat and opened the door for them.

The three anthropomorphic animals stepped out of the limo, surveying the scene.

"Woah. I have _never_ seen this many rich old people before in my life," Sonic said.

"Me neither," Silver agreed in an almost mesmerized voice.

Even Blaze seemed surprised as she led them into the white city hall building. Every person there seemed to be in their late thirties and older.

When they got inside, they saw that all of the benches in the main room were gone. The stage near the front of the room seemed to be pulled back, and tables had been set around the edges of the room, making a wide space as a dance floor. There were waiters walking around in white tuxedos carrying trays with glasses of champagne and small, fancy, "compliments of the chef" type foods. Sonic noticed that there was barely a bite to be taken from them, but he took one from a tray as it passed by, casually popping it into his mouth.

Immediately he grimaced. He looked around for a napkin, but he couldn't find one and was forced to swallow the food.

"What is it?" Silver asked.

"I have no clue, but it was raw," gagged Sonic.

Blaze took some of it from a tray as it came to her, eating it. She rolled her eyes at Sonic. "It's sushi, Sonic. It's _supposed_ to be raw," she said.

"Yeah, well... hedgehogs don't like fish. Cat's might, but we don't," he said. "Right Silver?"

Silver plucked one of the small morsel of sushi from a tray and ate it. "It's fine, don't be such a baby," he said, shrugging at Sonic.

"_Baby?_ I fought four supervillains last week. Not one, not two, not _three_, but four," Sonic hissed.

"Know it off, you two," said Blaze.

Sonic grunted, and Silver just rolled his eyes. As Sonic glanced around, he began to notice that some of the people were staring at the bag he held over one shoulder.

"I think I'll put this back in the limo, people are giving me the evil eye," Sonic said, gesturing towards the bag.

"No, I think you should be here when I find Henri, Sonic. Silver, can you please take it?" Blaze asked.

Silver sighed, but reluctantly took the bag from Sonic and headed out the door.

"So... what's the big occasion? Hopefully his daughter is getting married. According to gagster movies, no leader of organized crime can refuse a request on his daughters wedding day," Sonic said.

"Sonic, like Silver said before, this isn't a gangster movie. There is no special occasion, Henri's just showing off, flaunting his money. He loves to do that. It's disgusting," Blaze said, scowling.

"Seriously? How rich _is _this guy?" Sonic asked in amazement, looking once again at the ball.

"Richer than you can imagine. Keep looking, I'm getting hungry, I need something to eat," said Blaze, beginning to walk off.

"Um... sure. Leave me in a alone in a building undoubtably full of crazy killers. I didn't just get out of the hospital after being beaten half to death by _more_ crazy killers," Sonic said sarcastically.

Despite his current pessimism, Sonic roved the room with his eyes, looking for the tomcat that Blaze had described to him on the way to the ball. It seemed simple enough: a black cat in his late forties, grey whiskers, and yellow-green eyes. The only problem was that Sonic saw at least a dozen black cats in their late forties with grey whiskers and yellow-green eyes.

"Right," Sonic said slowly, shaking his head in disbelief. _Well, I should probably go back and find Silver so he can help me identify this guy, it seemed like he knew Henri too,_ Sonic thought to himself. He backed up and began to turn around, but accidentally bumped into someone. He began to apologize, but recoiled in shock and revulsion at what he saw he had bumped into.

The animal- or _creature_- he had bumped into was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It appeared somewhat like a male human, although it was shorter and much hairier than one. Still, it was over a foot taller than Sonic. When he thought about it, the creature looked like a well dressed wolfman. It _was_ wearing formal clothing, making its hideous face look somewhat out of place.

It looked down at him with its tiny yellow eyes, its sharp yellow claws twitching.

Sonic looked back up before smiling sheepishly. "Um... hi," he said to the wolf creature. It growled at him, baring its teeth. Saliva dripped from its yellow fangs.

"Cujo!" called a voice louder than the music being played by the small orchestra in the corner of the room. Many heads turned towards the source of the voice, wondering what the shouting was about.

The creature, obviously named Cujo, turned his shaggy head towards the voice, blinking stupidly. Then, slowly, he began to shuffle forward, his large feet sliding across the floor and his arms swinging stiffly from side to side.

Curious, Sonic followed Cujo for a few steps, watching for whoever had called his name. The wolflike creature ambled through the crowd, ignoring stares of fear, disgust, and shock that were thrown his way. After a few moments he came to a tall, lean cat with black fur, grey whiskers, and yellow-green eyes. Sonic didn't need anybody to tell him that the cat was Henri.

The very air surrounding the cat was that of pure arrogance, of the feeling that he was untouchable by anything, be it the law or physical harm. Like a normal cat, his eyes were bright and attentive, but they also seemed to move slowly from the left to the right, as though observing those around him with great suspicion.

Sonic watched as Henri grabbed the wolflike Cujo by the sleeve and drag him back to one of the tables surrounding the dancing area, his lips moving rapidly as though he were scolding the lumbering creature for wandering out into the crowd.

Also at the table were two other cats, both female. The taller one, although older, still retained a sort of cold beauty, her forlorn looking grey eyes lingering on many things.

The other cat looked like both Henri and the older, depressed looking cat. She had both the older females light brown fur and beauty, and Henris suspicious looking yellow-green eyes. Sonic realized that they must be a family- perhaps the older female was Henris wife and the younger a daughter or niece.

As Sonic watched Henri seat Cujo down near yet another hideous, wolflike creature at the table, he contemplated finding Blaze. Cujo and the other wolfman creature both looked strong enough to match Sonic's speed, and if any violence erupted he most certainly wouldn't be able to fight both of them at once. He didn't have anything to fear though, for at that moment Silver came back scowling at Sonic.

"There, _master_, I took care of that thing for you. Did I miss anything?" the white hedgehog asked.

"Hey, I said I would have taken it. You could have told Blaze 'no, piss off'. As for missing anything, you kind of did. I bumped into this butt-ugly wolf thing and I saw Henri bring him back to sit at some table," Sonic said.

Silver seemed to absorbed in thinking about the creature Sonic had described to explain that he would never tell Blaze to "piss off" in his life. "Cujo," he said, referring to the creature. He scanned the crowd with his eyes, eventually seeing Henri and his family sitting at the table. At the moment, Henri was talking to an old hare with tortoise shell glasses who had made its way over to Henri's table to greet him.

"Yeah, that's what Henri called him. Who is he?" Sonic asked, pointing to the two wolf-humans sitting at the table. The second was smaller than Cujo, but seemed more aware of the things going on around him.

"He's a werewolf, as is the one sitting next to him, Cranik. Henri created them as his 'ultimate warriors'. They act as both his bodyguards and hitmen for him," said Silver. "They aren't very bright though, as you can probably tell. Where's Blaze?"

"Went to get something to eat," Sonic said, grimacing at Cujo and Cranik.

"Oh, wait, there she is. Hey, Blaze! Hey... where's she going?" Silver asked, frowning at Blaze, who was across the other side of the room, walking towards the tables.

"Where do you think she's going?" Sonic asked after seeing where she was headed towards. Blaze was walking right towards Henri's table, her expression blank and her eyes cold.

"Oh, no. We'd better get over there," muttered Silver, pushing through the crowd towards the table with Sonic following closely behind. When they got to the table, they saw that Henri and Blaze were already speaking, each one of them staring at the other icily. As they came close, Henri turned his attention to Silver, a smirk appearing on his face.

"So, Blaze, why did you bring this piece of trash here with you? I never understood why you kept him with you for so long," he said. Sonic frowned slightly. The cat had a light accent that he couldn't quite place. It sounded slightly German, only less guttural and not as pronounced. Was it Dutch maybe?

"Well, he's my friend, something I'm sure you would never understand," Blaze said cooly.

Henri smiled icily. "Oh, come on. Just because I prefer not to trust other people with the secrets of my life doesn't mean I don't know what friendship is," he said.

Silver stared at him for a moment, then glanced at the other two cats. "It's nice to see you both," he said, trying to mask the angry undertones in his voice.

The older female smiled briefly (and unenthusiastically), while the younger just rolled her eyes and turned her head away, looking at the dancers instead.

Henri looked at Silver and Blaze, then at Sonic, whom he seemed to notice for the first time. The cat stared at Sonic for a moment, looking as though he were angry at him. Then he turned back to Blaze and said in a strained voice, "Well sit down if you want to talk, then."

Cujo and Cranik got up and pushed three chairs forward for the trio to sit in. Sonic nodded at Cujo, who merely snuffled angrily. Apparently the werewolf still hadn't forgiven Sonic for bumping into him.

When they were all situated, Henri leaned forward, squinting at Sonic. "So who the hell are you?" he asked.

"Another friend. He's the reason we need to talk to you," said Blaze quickly, before Sonic could answer.

Next to Sonic, Cujo began whimpering lightly and scratching behind his left ear with one claw feverishly, drawing disgusted looks from the two female cats at the table.

"Really? What do you need me for? _Stop that!_" Henri snapped at Cujo, turning to him quickly. Cujo stopped, a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

"I know that you have the Astrum Emerald, Henri- don't deny it, I know you do- and we need it. We need you to return it to the museum you stole it from," Blaze said.

Henri looked from Blaze to Sonic, a grin spreading across his face slowly. "Oh? And why exactly do you need me to do this? Why should I help you?" he asked.

"Because your life depends on it," Blaze said flatly.

Henri scowled, and the two female cats at the table glanced at him, nervous looks coming across their faces.

"Was that a threat?" he asked softly.

"No, a warning. Many lives depend on it. Mine, Silver's, and the lives of everyone on this planet," Blaze said. "We need to use the emerald, Henri, just let us use it and everything will be fine."

Henri stared coldly at Blaze, then turned to the older female cat. "I don't know. What do you make of this, Judith?" he asked.

"Why are you asking me? It's your business, not mine," Judith said, picking up a glass of champagne on the table and sipping at it.

Henri looked like he were about to become angry, but he retained his anger and shrugged and turned back to Blaze. "Why do you need to use the emerald? Better yet, why is this guy the reason you need it?" he asked, pointing at Sonic.

"He's from very far away, and he has something that requires massive amounts of energy. We think the Astrum Emerald can help him with that," Blaze said.

Henri thought for a moment. "And you say everyone on the planet's lives depend on this?" he asked.

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but yes," Blaze said.

Henri nodded slowly, then chuckled softly to himself. "You really think I'm that stupid? I know what you're trying to do. If I put my emerald in the Astrum Emeralds shrine and it worked, that would be admitting that I was guilty of taking it in the first place... which I _didn't_," he added quickly. "Sorry, Blaze, but your little vigilante crusade isn't going to work."

"What if I pay you?" Blaze asked in a last ditch effort to get him to agree. Silver stared at her in shock and horror, wondering if she really would pay a killer and a thief to get him to cooperate.

Henri got up and looked at Cujo and Cranik. "I think I've had enough of listening to your nonsense, it's offending me. Please leave, or they will _make_ you leave," he said to Blaze, Silver, and Sonic.

The three looked back at Cujo and Cranik, who had gotten up and were standing behind them.

Scowling at Henri, Blaze slowly got up, letting Cujo and Cranik lead them out of the building. When they were at the bottom of the steps to the City Hall, the two werewolves left them and shuffled back into the building.

"Well that was a waste of a trip," Sonic said quietly. Inside, he was beginning to lose hope. _Who am I kidding? I'll never get back home. I never should have come here in the first place_, he thought.

As they entered the limo, Silver glanced at Sonic apologetically. "So, what do we do now?" the white hedgehog asked Blaze, leaning toward her when they were inside.

Blaze looked at both of them, her expression solemn. "The only thing we can do," she said. "We're going to steal the Astrum Emerald from Henri."

--

**A/N:** Oh, boy. What now? I don't know... well actually I do, but I can't say or it'll ruin the story. Anyhoo, please review!


	12. An Unexpected Alliance

**A/N:** Eh, I wanted to finish two chapters before updating again, but I decided what the hell. I'm about halfway done with the next chapter anyway, so I can probably finish it and then write almost another one by next weekend.

I also changed this chapter and am a little happier with it, feeling that it isn't quite as rushed as it was at first. But that's just my opinion. Please review and tell me what you think!

--

"No. Out of the question," Silver said for at least the fifth time during their drive back towards Blaze's apartment.

"I don't see what other choice we have. We need the Astrum Emerald, and the only way we're going to get it is by stealing it from Henri," Blaze said.

"I don't like this either... there should be another way, right? You're the queen, just publicly order him to put the emerald back in its place!" exclaimed Sonic.

"I am the queen, but I don't hold absolute power, Sonic. People still have rights in this world. If Henri doesn't want to give up the emerald out of his own free will, we can't force him to give it up," Blaze said.

Sonic sighed. "Fine then. But... steal it? You couldn't be linked to something like that, you're the queen! If anybody found out about you being an accomplice in theft, you would be dethroned and your family would be shamed forever!" he said.

"Is it considered theft if you're stealing something to return it to its rightful place?" Blaze asked cooly.

"Yes! Theft is theft, no matter what angle you look at it from!" Sonic cried, throwing his hands into the air.

"Sonic, I want to help you–" Sonic cut Blaze off in mid-sentence.

"I appreciate it. Really, I do. But I am _not_ going to let you put your entire life on the line for mine! It's- it's–"

"Preposterous? Stupid?" Silver said, glaring at Blaze. He was her best friend, but even he couldn't stand by her in a decision like that.

"Exactly, thank you!" Sonic said.

Blaze looked at Silver. "Could... you?" she asked slowly.

"Could I do what? Help Sonic steal the emerald?" Silver asked, shocked.

"Yes. You aren't royalty. I know it's selfish of me to ask, and you could both be thrown in prison, but please, Silver. You know that the fate of this world and Sonic's depends on this!" Blaze said.

Silver looked at Sonic, who merely blinked back at him. "I... I don't know. I need time to think about it," Silver said after a very long pause.

"We don't have time, Silver," Blaze said.

"_I know, but I need it!_ God, you just expect me to go along with this hedgehog I barely know just because you tell me to?" Silver shouted angrily.

Sonic and Blaze stared at Silver in shock, Blaze especially surprised. In all the years she had known him, he had never raised his voice, especially at her.

Silver rubbed his closed eyes, sighing. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm stressed. I need... time. That's what I need. We all need time to think about this. I know we don't have it and that every day Sonic stays here, we get closer to dying, but... just give me one night. One night to sleep on it, that's all I ask," he said.

"I need to think too. This is all so sudden, the only other crime I've committed was breaking Knuckles out of a GUN building Apollo had taken control of," Sonic said. "Then even that is a stretch to call it a crime."

Blaze looked at them both. "You can think on it, I won't stop you. But... I can't come?" she asked.

"No, your life would be over if anyone found out. I don't even know if I'm going to do this," Silver said quietly.

Sonic looked at both of them. "Then is this something I have to do? Alone?" he asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. "We'll see in the morning," Silver said. Then he looked back at the other two. "Even if I do decide to come along, we need time to think of a plan that will work," he said.

Sonic just nodded in silent agreement.

None of them spoke to each other for the rest of the ride back to Blaze's apartment. To complete the gloomy atmosphere, a slight drizzle of rain began falling, slicking the paved roads and causing tiny beads of water to roll down the window as Sonic looked out at the street lights they passed.

How long had it been since he had left home? He couldn't quite remember. A week in the hospital, this was his second day with Blaze, and he was living homeless for the first two days. Or was it three days? Godammit, he was starting to lose track of the days now.

_Three days. I was here for three days at first, a week in the hospital, and this is my second day with Blaze. That makes twelve days in total. Almost two weeks. A little over one more week and I'll have been here for an entire month_, he thought.

Thoughts began to plague his mind about home as well. Was Knuckles on a recon mission at the moment? Was he okay? Alive, even? Was Tails with him? _Of course not_, thought Sonic,_ Jeed probably kicked the poor kid into one of the sealed off rooms full of angry Artificial Chaos Prototypes already_.

It was close to seven o'clock when the three returned to Blaze's apartment. Sonic usually didn't go to bed until late at night, but he was strangely exhausted at that time.

The chauffeur let them out at the apartment building and drove away into the night, splashing some water on Sonic as he drove away.

"God, what a prick," Sonic muttered, looking at the dirty stains on the front of his shirt.

"I don't really care right now, let's just go up and get some sleep," Silver grumbled, staggering towards the door of the apartment building. Blaze unlocked it and led them up the stairs slowly. While she was walking, she tried to think of ways that Sonic could get the Astrum Emerald from Henri. She had only been to his mansion once before, and she knew that the emerald was usually kept in the great hall, but after their confrontation at the ball Blaze expected that Henri would have moved it to a more secure location for fear of it being stolen.

She didn't have much time to think, and in a few minutes they were standing in front of the door to her apartment. Blaze opened the door and the trio of heroes stumbled inside. Blaze flicked the light switch on, but nothing happened. The room remained dark.

"Huh," Blaze grunted, frowning at the light switch. "It isn't raining that hard outside, and there isn't any lightning. I wonder why the power is out?"

Sonic rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Oh well. I guess we'll just have to deal with it then. Silver, I call your bed," Sonic said quickly.

"No way, you were a total dick to me today. I get my own room tonight," Silver said. Then he noticed something in the kitchen. "Wait, the power isn't out. The lights on the microwave are still on," he said, pointing to the glowing digital numbers on the microwave reading _6:13_. No sooner had he pointed this out did a hard, blunt object hit him in the back of the head, knocking him out cold.

Sonic whirled around to see a dark silhouette slam the apartment door shut, plunging the room into total darkness. He tried to prepare himself for battle, but before he could even raise his fists two sets of hands gripped him by the shoulders and drove him forward, slamming his face against the stone counter top. He tried to struggle, but one of the figures holding him violently kneed him in the side, causing the healing stab wound in his side to flare up with pain. Sonic stopped struggling and began to pant heavily, cringing at the pain. _I'm definitely in no condition to fight_, he thought to himself.

While yet another figure stood over Silver, pinning him down just in case he woke up again, Blaze felt a hand grip her throat from behind. But by then she was prepared for an attack. She slammed her elbow backwards into her attackers stomach, causing a low _whoosh_ sound as the air rushed out of his lungs. As soon as her elbow made contact, she pulled it back, aimed higher, then smashed it into the figures face.

There was a howl of pain and the figure dropped to the floor, cupping its bleeding face. Blaze could see in the dark to a certain extent, and as another figure lunged at her from the darkness she tucked her legs towards against her chest and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding being tackled. She lifted her foot to kick the figure that had tried to tackle her, but five others rushed forward, crashing into her, pummeling her, and forcing her to the floor. The silhouette that had been elbowed in the face stood, walked over to blaze, and violently kicked her in the stomach.

"That's enough, you've got them," said a deep, slightly aggravated voice from one corner. "Finch, go put the lights back in."

Sonic frowned, recognizing the voice. It had come from a grey hedgehog dangling him over the edge of a parking garage a week earlier.

The silhouette standing over Silver, Finch, strode over to the couch and picked up an object before walking up to a darkened lamp in the corner and screwing the object into it. Immediately the room lit up with a faint yellow glow, and Sonic could see that Finch was in fact the red and green hedgehog who had tried to stab him at an outdoor café earlier that afternoon. He also saw that every other lightbulb in the apartment had been unscrewed, resulting in the darkness when Blaze flipped the switch.

Graye nodded towards Ice and another yellow hedgehog, who were both the ones holding him against the counter. "Bring him here," Graye said, motioning towards the area of the floor where Blaze was. The two hedgehogs roughly dragged Sonic over to Blaze and threw him onto the floor, not bothering to hold him down.

Sonic looked around at the eleven hedgehogs of the Pantheon, grimacing. There were seven males and four females in total, each of them looking just as cold and dangerous as the other. He noticed that all of them except Ice wore the same black and white sneakers. Perhaps it was a symbol they had adopted.

Sonic looked back up as Graye approached him slowly, a noticeable limp in his left leg, most likely from his battle with Apollo. The gash on his right cheek was scabbed over as well, and if Sonic wasn't in pain he would have cracked a joke about Graye looking like one of the tough-guy heroes from an action movie.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," Graye said. "We've had our cameras on you for the longest time. Always saving the world, putting yourself before everyone else. I respected you. You reminded me of myself," he said.

"Except I didn't kill people, I saved them," Sonic said, trying to snarl. All he did was wheeze in exhaustion.

"I kill a few to save many. If there was another way, I would do it," Graye said almost regretfully. He turned to Blaze, scowling. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself for keeping him here, Queen Blaze. You knew the danger. But we'll let you off the hook this time. We'll take him away and kill him quietly, and nobody will suspect that you had anything to do with it," he said.

Blaze responded by spitting on his shoe. He frowned, nodded to the others, and was about to pick Sonic up and drag him out of the apartment when suddenly the spittle on the shoe burst into flames.

Graye yelped in amazement and fear before stumbling back into the kitchen, turning the faucet on, and lifting his foot, sticking it under the cold water. The flames went out, but Graye's entire shoe was drenched, and it squelched uncomfortably as he walked back over to Blaze and Sonic.

Graye caught sight of Sonic, who was doing a bad job of hiding his snickering with fake coughs. "That's not funny," he said angrily. One of the Pantheon hedgehogs kicked Sonic in the left kidney, silencing him.

"We'll be taking him now. Someone knock her out," Graye said, looking at the others.

The yellow hedgehog that had been holding Sonic stepped forward, holding one of the paperweights Blaze had put on the papers covering the counter.

"Hold it," Blaze said as Graye grabbed Sonic by the back of the neck. He turned back to her slowly.

"What?" he asked, still annoyed with what she had made him do to his shoe.

"You said that you wouldn't kill him if there was another way, didn't you?" Blaze asked.

"I wouldn't, but there isn't. We have devices to gather enough energy to send our own cameras into the Chaos Dimension, but not people," said Graye.

"We have a way. In fact, we were working on our plan just before you attacked us," said Blaze darkly.

Graye didn't look convinced. "Oh, really? How's this? What's your plan?" he asked.

"I've got the Chaos Emeralds, but they aren't charged up enough to get me out of here," Sonic broke in quickly. "If we had the... uh... what's it called again?" Sonic asked, looking at Blaze.

"Astrum Emerald. If we had it we could recharge the Chaos Emeralds, and Sonic could Chaos Control himself back into his own dimension," Blaze finished.

Graye looked surprised. He looked at Ice, the smartest member of the Pantheon. "Would it work?" he asked.

Ice looked at Sonic, thinking for a long moment. After a few minutes she shrugged. "It seems plausible. But I don't know how they could get the Astrum Emerald, that snake Henri the Tomcat owns it," she said.

"We met him tonight. He wouldn't give it to us so we were going to steal it and return it to its altar," Sonic said hurriedly.

Graye looked amused. "Steal it? That's a joke, right? Henri the Tomcat keeps the emerald under watch by at least two dozen armed guards every hour of every day. We thought we could use it to warp Chaos beings back to their own dimension, but there was no way we could do it," he said.

"We have Silver, and he's telekinetic. He can pull planets apart just by thinking it," Sonic said, desperate. He knew that Silver had told him that something of that caliber was impossible, but he didn't say that. He wanted to live, after all.

Graye looked at the unconscious Silver, who was still laying on a heap on the floor guarded by Finch, the red and green hedgehog.

"Maybe we should help them. It's better than killing another person," said Ice reluctantly.

"It'll be difficult, but with this blue hedgehog, Queen Blaze, and that white one, we might be able to do it," said one of the two green hedgehogs helping to hold Blaze down. The other, a male, looked at the girl who had spoken and nodded in agreement.

"I can't help. Sonic and Silver said that my life could be considered forfeit if I was caught stealing from Henri, even if he stole the Astrum Emerald in the first place," said Blaze, looking at Sonic rather angrily. He just shrugged nervously, still painfully aware that Graye was gripping him tightly by the throat.

Graye frowned uncomfortably, then looked at Sonic, then Silver, then Blaze, then at every member of the Pantheon.

"So? What do we do?" asked a deep violet colored hedgehog with light green eyes strangely contrasting his dark fur.

Graye sighed heavily, then threw Sonic, all too roughly, onto the floor of the apartment. "Fine. We'll help you," he said. Then he held up a finger. "But if anything goes wrong, the deal is off, and we'll hunt you down."

Sonic just grinned and rubbed his neck. "That's fine, I've always been a risk taker. It's a deal."


	13. Plan B

Silver slowly opened his eyes to find himself staring at the pale ceiling of Blaze's apartment. He shifted uncomfortably, noticing that he was laying on the leather couch in the living room section of the apartment and that he had been laying on the TV remote. He groggily pulled the remote out from under his back and rubbed the aching area under his shoulder, wondering if everything that had happened the previous night was just a dream. Seeing early morning sunlight streaming in through the plate glass door leading onto the balcony, Silver tried to sit up so he could make himself breakfast. A surge of pain that rushed from his neck into his skull made him crash back into the cushions on the couch, clutching his head and groaning.

_So it was real after all_, Silver thought, feeling the throbbing area in the back of his skull. _But we were attacked... why am I lying safely on the couch?_ he wondered.

"Silver? You awake, man?" asked Sonic's voice from behind the couch.

Silver squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them once again in an attempt to blink away the sleepiness. "Yeah, I'm alright. What happened?" he groaned. He was about to sit up, minding his head, when Blaze's voice came as well, stopping him.

"Now there are some people here that you may think shouldn't be. Don't be alarmed," Blaze said.

"People I think shouldn't be here? Like who?" Silver asked, standing up groggily before turning to face Sonic and Blaze. Immediately his eyes widened, all feelings of pain left his body, and he quickly extended his hand. With a burst of unseen energy, all remaining members of the Pantheon were pinned to one wall.

"She told you not to be freaked out, idiot," Graye muttered scowling at Silver. Silver stared at all eleven of them for a few moments, uncertain of what he should do next. He glanced at Blaze, who was holding one hand out.

"It's okay. They're alright," she said slowly.

Silver hesitantly let his hand drop to his side, releasing the Pantheon members from his telekinetic grasp. He stared at them for a few seconds, then turned to Blaze and Sonic.

"Tell me why they're here, please?" he asked in shock, pointing at Graye and the Pantheon cult.

"I don't really know. One second we walk in, the next second they knock you out, the next we fight, and in another two seconds we're at a truce," said Sonic, shrugging.

Silver turned to Blaze. "Really. Tell me what happened. Tell me why there are murderers in our _kitchen_," he demanded.

Blaze shook her head and motioned towards a seat in front of the counter. "You'd better sit down, then," she said. Silver did as she commanded, and soon he was deep in listening to Blaze's story of what had happened the previous night.

When she was finished, Silver just sighed in disgust. "So that's it? We're supposed to just go with them? Seriously, Blaze. They're a cult of killers," he cried.

"Like a Sol Dimension Manson Family," Sonic sniggered, picking up a piece of toast that had been laying on the counter and stuffing it into his mouth.

"I don't know who they are," Blaze muttered before turning back to Silver. "Look, it's the only choice we have. It's either this or both our dimensions being destroyed. Personally, I'd prefer working with the cult of killers," she said.

"You aren't going to be working with them, though," muttered Silver distastefully. He turned back to Graye. "So you're the leader of this group, then. What's your plan?" he asked.

"We don't have one yet. Even if we did it probably wouldn't work," said Graye darkly.

Sonic scowled. _Wow, what an optimist_, he thought. He said nothing, however, fearing that even a smart remark could break the uneven truce between them.

"Well, where do we start then? If we're stealing something from Henri the Tomcat's mansion, filled to the brim with state of the art security systems and armed guards, we need a plan. Maybe we should check out the mansion and see if there are any holes in the security?" said Silver.

"Already done. I sent Ice and Finch to the base of the Hirian mountains to search for things like that. I've heard rumors of natural caverns underneath the mansion spreading outwards for miles. If it's true, Henri might use it for smuggling, but I suppose we could use them to our advantage," said Graye.

"Well, that's a start. What do we do while they're gone?" Silver asked.

Blaze just shrugged. "I don't think there's anything we can do. Just wait," she said.

And so they waited. Most of the Pantheon stood, some of them milling about, some talking in hushed tones, and some just standing there.

Sonic looked around at all of them while he waited, trying to remember their names. Graye had introduced them all once before, but he could hardly remember. Thinking as hard as he could, Sonic looked at each of them and tried to remember their names.

The two sage green hedgehogs stood out in his mind. They were apparently twins, one male and the other female. The had similar sounding names... Jon was the male, Jeanne was the name of the female. Sonic nodded slightly, remembering. There was Graye of course, then the purple hedgehog with green eyes named Wesley. Although they weren't there, Sonic could clearly remember Ice and Finch, the grey eyed, red quilled hedgehog that had tried to stab him at the café the previous day..

Then there were others whose names somewhat eluded Sonic. There was the yellow hedgehog that had grabbed him and slammed his face onto the counter along with Ice. _What was his name? Damn, I can't remember. Andy? Adrian? Ad... Ajax, that's it!_ Sonic thought. Then there was a female hedgehog with yellow-green fur and hazel eyes. Sonic remembered that she had more normal sounding name, something with an E at the beginning. Erin, that was it.

The other three were two males and one female: a male, hedgehog with sandy colored fur named Malachi, a navy blue female hedgehog name Laura, and a wiry, crimson hedgehog whose name suited his muscular build: Spider.

They waited almost twelve hours before Ice and Finch finally returned. Twelve long, tedious, uncomfortable hours. When they returned, Sonic was sitting in the now-messy living room, anxiously and rapidly tapping his foot against the carpet.

Silver was switching through channels on the TV, his ears twitching for every third tap of Sonic's foot. The problem for him was that every third tap came about every second. "Will you cut it out already?" Silver hissed after a little while.

"I can't help it, I need to move around and do something!" Sonic said, scowling.

"Go out and run!"

"What if they think I'm ditching them? They'll come after me and try to kill me!" said Sonic.

_Thump, thump, thump_. Everyone turned to see Ice and Finch standing on the balcony, knocking on the glass door. Graye strode forward and unlocked the door for them, and they stepped inside.

"How did you get up there?" Silver asked, frowning.

"What do you think I have these for?" Ice retorted, motioning towards her jet-propelled boots. Without asking, Finch opened up a cupboard and poured himself a bowl full of cereal.

"Fine, just take our food too," Silver muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

"So? Did you find anything?" Graye asked, looking at Ice.

Ice nodded. "It looks like the rumors about the tunnels are true. Only about half of them are naturally made though, the rest of them were dug out a long time ago. I have no idea why no one has found them yet," she said.

"They probably have, but have either been killed or payed off," muttered Finch, pouring milk into the bowl of cereal.

"How'd you get into the tunnels?" Sonic asked Ice, frowning.

Ice sighed and sat down at a stool next to the counter. "It wasn't easy. There's another house about a mile and a half away from Henri's estate, right on the edge of the city. As it turns out, that guy is so rich he paid for it to be built. It's the exit to the tunnels so that he can smuggle things into the city," she said.

"And you got in the tunnels that way?" Blaze asked.

Ice nodded. "Henri has a guard in the house. I'm guessing that he lives there. We were able to slip into it of them unnoticed though- the dumbass was asleep. The main tunnel leads right underneath his mansion, but we guessed that other tunnels branched off and stretch on for miles and miles, all across the continent probably," said Ice.

Blaze shook her head angrily. "All of this happening right under my nose. That son of a bitch," she muttered.

Ice was about to continue when Finch broke in. "There's tons of guards down there. Only a few of us would be able to go down there at a time," he said.

"Well, we've got enough people here to spread out all across the city. Man, I feel like I'm in _Ocean's Eleven_ or something," Sonic said. "It's a movie about a robbery," he explained before anyone could ask.

"Right, whatever. Anyway, there's a gigantic vault down under the mansion. Henri smuggles anything and everything through those tunnels: stolen vehicles, weapons, drugs, you name it. All packed away in that vault. And guess what? The paranoid bastard even moved the Astrum Emerald down into that vault last night, after you three went asking him for it," Ice said.

"I was afraid something like that would happen," Silver muttered, scratching his head. His hand jerked back when he touched the painful area in the back of his skull.

"So does that help us?" Sonic asked. Everyone stared at him blankly.

"What the fuck do _you_ think? It's been moved from a glass box in a hallway to an impenetrable safe," Finch said, scowling.

"Okay, okay, sorry. I just thought it would be a little easier to steal something in a dark tunnel than in a hallway filled with security systems and guys with guns," Sonic said.

Graye shrugged. "Actually you've got a point. We could take out enough guards down there to clear a good path for us, then crack the safe, grab the emerald, and get out of there. It would be a one shot deal, but it would be all we need," he said.

"I don't know. You haven't seen the safe, Graye. The thing is huge. It could take days or even weeks to get through the door on that thing," said Ice uncertainly.

"Isn't that why we have him with us?" Graye asked, pointing to Silver. "The telekinetic hedgehog who can pull planets apart just by thinking it?"

"Not exactly," Silver muttered under his breath.

Ice shrugged at Silver. "I guess. Do you think you could do something like that?" she asked.

"Maybe. If I concentrated as hard as I could," he said.

There was a long period of silence. Then Sonic clapped his hands together. "Well, nice job everybody. But seeing as it's about six o'clock, I have a healing stab wound in my side, and I'm already really tired, I'm going to eat something and go to bed," he said.

"Ditto, only I have a cracked skull instead of a stab wound," said Silver.

The Pantheon didn't stop them. In fact, they left the apartment before Sonic, Blaze, and Silver went to bed. Sonic, Silver, and Blaze were all relieved- the very presence of the Pantheon was enough to unsettle even Blaze.

The next three days went by fairly normal for Sonic. The Pantheon was gone most of the time, allowing him some time to think and a bit more peace of mind. Every so often one of the members would pop in and let them know how their investigation was going. By the third day, Sonic, Silver, and the Pantheon seemed to be feeling quite confident in their plan.

As they had planned, Silver, Sonic, and the green hedgehog twins would slip down into the tunnels unnoticed by the guard living at the cottage over the tunnel exit- there was a short interval where he went outside to collect firewood every morning. When he came back, Graye would be waiting, would take him out, and would masquerade as the guard living there if anyone else from the Cat's Eye went to check. That way the others could escape from the tunnels through the cottage exit without having to worry about a hostile noticing their escape.

While they did that, Wesley, Finch, and Erin would be working on the power lines feeding electricity into Henri's mansion and the underground tunnels. However, since there were two backup generators for each, Ajax, Malachi, and Laura would be destroying those at the same moment that the power cut out.

However, there was still the problem of armed guards hurrying into the tunnels, finding the four heroes, and shooting them dead. That was why Ice and Spider would have to infiltrate the mansion and quickly and silently dispatch as many guards as they could during the confusion.

"Okay, and what if this doesn't work either? Is there a plan C or anything?" Sonic asked Graye after being told the full plan.

"Yeah. Improvise," Graye responded curtly.

The plan was to take place on July 24th, at half past ten at night. Sonic looked at the calender on the kitchen wall and saw that it was July 23rd, only one day away from the theft of the Astrum Emerald. Sonic checked the clock to see that the time was ten thirty. _Exactly_ one day until the theft of the Astrum Emerald.

Sonic slowly made his way into the apartment bathroom and looked at his reflection in the mirror, comparing the hedgehog he saw now to the one he used to be six years ago. His old, mischievous smirk had disappeared a long time ago, replaced by a grim frown. His spikes were longer and his face a bit more sallow than before, but he could still recognize the eyes. They still glinted with the same slightly angry, overly-energetic light as before. For all the ways he had changed, it was still him. It was still Sonic the Hedgehog.

"So are you ready for tomorrow?" asked a voice from behind him. He looked in the reflection of the mirror to see that it was Silver, leaning against the doorframe, frowning.

"I don't know. I don't think so," Sonic said.

"Me neither. I've never stolen anything before. Especially something this big... I mean, I'm risking my life. And I don't mean dying, I mean being accused of a theft like this. Even Blaze wouldn't be able to protect me if I'm caught," said Silver.

"It's for the survival of your world. I'd do it if I were you," Sonic said.

"Yeah, but you're an idiot," Silver scowled.

Sonic supposed he should have been angry, but he wasn't. He just chuckled lightly, splashed some water on his face, and turned to leave the bathroom. "You know, you're not a half bad guy, Silver," he said, patting the younger hedgehog on the shoulder as he walked by.

"I wish I could say the same about you," Silver snickered lightly, taking the place of Sonic in the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face.

Sonic trudged down the hall towards Blaze's room. The lights were of, but she was awake and sitting on the edge of her bed.

"You okay?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know," Blaze sighed. She looked up at him, her yellow eyes glinting in the darkness. "I'm just wondering how this ever happened, you know? This- this crazy. Our dimensions were supposed to be split apart for good," she said.

"Yeah, well Tails and I just couldn't leave well enough alone," Sonic sighed, turning on the lights and sitting on the bed next to Blaze.

"Do you blame Tails? For this, I mean?" she asked.

"No way. How could I? He had no idea that this would cause so much trouble. He still has no idea," Sonic said.

They were both silent for a moment. "I just wish I could help you two. I'm powerful enough, and this could be my chance to bring Henri down once and for all," she said.

"It's not that we think you're weak, _I_ know you aren't. It would just be a disaster for you if you were caught," Sonic said. Blaze just grunted. Sonic sighed and looked out the window, staring at tiny pinpoints of light in the skyscrapers, beyond to the hulking shadow of the Hirian Mountains on the horizon.

"Be careful," Blaze said, glancing at Sonic.

Sonic grinned. "I always am," he said. He hugged Blaze and said good night, then tiredly wobbled into the living room and threw himself down on the couch. He contemplated watching TV, but decided not to. It was already almost eleven o'clock, and he needed to sleep for tomorrow. Within minutes, he was fast asleep.

Five and a half hours later, he felt something prod him awake. Sonic awoke to see Silver, Graye, Ice, and the rest of the Pantheon standing in the living room.

"Time to go," said Graye.

--

**A/N: **Wow, only two or three more chapters left for this story, and with luck they'll both contain some of the coolest action scenes I've written yet. Well, please review, as always!


	14. Bleed Out

Since Blaze was still asleep, Silver left a note saying that they had already left- he didn't want it to be difficult to leave for any of them. While he wrote it, Sonic chuckled grimly to himself, thinking of what Silver was writing:

__

Going out to steal from a mob boss, be back later tonight. Hugs and kisses!

-Silver and Sonic

They left as quietly as they could, slipping down the stairwell and heading out the door of the apartment building. Sonic noticed that almost every Pantheon member had an article of clothing that would alter their appearance in some way- Graye had a pair of tortoise shell glasses and a baseball cap over his head, his spikes bunched into it and poking out of the back, Ice had a coat with an upturned collar, and others carried hats or scarves to change the way their spikes were shaped. Graye was also carrying a medium sized duffel bag over one shoulder.

"So are we going to run or drive?" Sonic asked, shouldering the stitched up rucksack containing the dead Chaos Emeralds.

"Both," Graye said, hailing a cab. "We're splitting up here. Everyone get into your groups and wait for my command. Do you have your communicators?" he asked everyone. Silver and Sonic shook their heads, so Graye reached into one pocket of his oversized coat and pulled out a pair of small, black walkie-talkies. "Keep them close at all times," ordered Graye.

As the cab pulled up, the predetermined groups all split up and headed down different streets, but all of them moving discreetly towards the Hirian Mountains. Graye, Sonic, Silver, Jon, and Jeanne all packed into the same cab- Graye produced a hundred dollar bill for the driver to let all five of them ride in the cab at once.

They drove to the northeastern edge of Southern City, where Graye told the driver to let them out. When the cab was out of sight, the five of them all turned towards a small road leading north and began to follow it. The road gradually became narrower and steeper, until all that was left was a barely visible dirt path that they nearly had to climb on all fours.

After about ten minutes of tedious climbing, the group reached a small, wooded area and a wider dirt road leading through the trees. A large, crude wooden sign had been speared into the ground in front of the path with the sign _NO TRESPASSING_ scrawled on it in sloppy, barely legible handwriting.

"God, the guy who lives here must be retarded," snickered Jon.

Graye, Jon, and Jeanne all removed their disguises and his them behind a pine tree before leading Sonic and Silver down the dirt path. After a little while of walking, Graye ducked into the woods, motioning for everyone else to follow him.

They crept through the underbrush, being careful to avoid stepping on any twigs or pine cones that would make loud noises. Soon a small, two-story house appeared through the shroud of morning fog. It was rustic looking, but a nice place overall. A large, four-wheel-drive pickup truck was parked in the front of the house.

Graye pulled back his white glove to check a digital watch on his wrist. "It's four fifty-seven right now. This guy comes out at exactly five o'clock each morning to collect firewood. Ice and I loosened up a window pane in the basement wall, so as soon as he comes out, you climb in through there, go over to the pile of firewood against the eastern wall, and push it aside. There should be a rug on the floor, and underneath that is a bolted trap door leading down into the tunnels. You know what to do after that, right?" he asked.

"Sneak through as best we can, try to take out any guards we see, and keep going West until we reach the foundations of Henri's mansion," said Jon.

"Once we're there, we contact Wesley, Finch, and Erin so they can take care of the power being fed to the lights and security cameras," said Jeanne after Jon.

Graye looked at Silver to see if he knew their next step.

"We wait until Ajax, Malachi, and Laura take care of the generator," said Silver. Graye nodded and looked at Sonic.

"Uh, we go in, take out any guards in the dark while the security cameras are offline, then have Silver rip off the door of the safe," Sonic concluded.

"Wait a minute, how am I supposed to rip off the door of the safe if I can't see in the dark?" asked Silver suddenly, frowning.

Graye placed his duffel bag on the ground and unzipped it, revealing four pairs of what appeared to be small binoculars with green lenses and straps on the back. Night vision goggled. "Take a pair each," said Graye. He waited until everyone had their own goggles, then kicked the empty duffel bag aside.

Almost as soon as he had kicked the bag, the screen front door of the cottage swung open, and out lumbered a very tall, incredibly hairy individual that Sonic recognized from the ball held by Henri the Tomcat. It was Cranik the Werewolf.

"Go," whispered Graye, ducking behind a tree and removing his glasses and baseball cap.

Sonic, Silver, Jeanne, and Jon all hurried around the back of the cottage towards the small window at the base of the house. It was tiny, but big enough for any of them to fit through. Jon waited a moment until Cranik was a short distance away before pushing on the pane of glass lightly. It popped out, and Jon pulled it out of the window before slipping into the basement. His sister and the other two hedgehogs followed him quickly.

They quickly and silently hurried to the pile of firewood by the wall and heaved the split logs aside. It wasn't very quiet, but it was quick. Jon pulled back the dusty, stained rug underneath the pile to reveal a metal trap door with a heavy bolt running through the center.

_Cutting firewood in the summer. I was wondering about that_, Sonic thought to himself.

Silver telkinetically pulled back the bolt before silently lifting up the metal door. Each of them slipped down into the darkness below, Sonic entering last.

"Wait, won't he notice that the logs are spilled everywhere?" asked Silver, looking around at the mess they had made.

"Graye will have killed him before he could come down here, don't worry," reassured Jeanne.

Sonic grabbed the stained rug and pulled it partially over the trap door before softly closing it and bolting it from the other side.

Graye watched as Cujo thumped over to an axe embedded in a large, flat tree stump. He dragged a large log towards the stump, then wiped his nose on one sleeve of the expensive looking leather jacket he was wearing. Grunting, the werewolf wrenched the axe out of the tree stump and raised it over his head.

Graye tensed his leg muscles. The others had gone around the back, walking silently on grass. Graye had to cross the gravel driveway to get to the front door, and he couldn't risk footsteps being heard. He had to get to a strategic area inside the house where he could take Cranik out with ease.

Cranik swung the axe downward, and Graye leapt forward. _Thud_, went the axe against the log as it split it halfway down the middle. The loud, dull noise masked the sound of Graye landing on the gravel driveway.

Graye looked up. He was completely exposed, but had carried himself almost halfway across the driveway with the single leap. Slowly, he began to tiptoe towards the house, his feet making barely a sound.

Cranik stiffened and Graye feared that he had been detected, when suddenly the werewolf's shoulders lurched as he let out a loud sneeze.

Seeing his opportunity while Cranik was coughing and sniffling, Graye quickly stepped closer to the house, at last hiding behind the huge, four-wheel-drive pickup truck parked in front of the house. Graye waited until Cranik swung the axe downward again before leaping forward and vaulting over the front porch railing. Again, the _thud, crack!_ of the axe splitting the wood covered the sound of Graye's impact.

Graye quickly and silently opened the screen door and slipped inside the cottage while Cranik dragged another log towards the tree stump. Once inside, the hedgehog glanced around, his eyes examining almost everything in the living room in a matter of seconds.

It was a nice place with a large, open fireplace built into the western wall. The furniture was made of expensive leather, and there was a large bearskin rug on the floor. As he looked around, Graye couldn't shake the feeling that he was in a hunting lodge from the numerous animal skins and heads mounted on the walls.

Graye knew that he had to get to a strategic area inside the house, where he could strike easily without being detected. He thought of hiding under the bed in the master bedroom at first, but then realized that it was early in the morning- there was a ninety-nine percent chance that Cranik wouldn't go back to bed after collecting firewood.

The hedgehog looked around for a weapon he could use. There was a long, wooden-handled fishing knife on the kitchen counter, but Graye decided against using it. It would take more than a few stabs with it to kill Cranik, and by the time he raised the knife for a second stab, the werewolf could have torn his throat out.

There was a pump action shotgun mounted above the fireplace, but Graye doubted that it was loaded, or even real. He didn't have time to check. Graye looked down to the open fireplace to see an iron fireplace poker resting against the wall. He glanced back outside through the screen door to see Cranik heading towards the house with a bundle of split logs in his thick, hairy arms.

Graye rushed to the fireplace and snatched up the poker before running back to the door and pressing himself against the wall next to the screen, trying to make himself appear as small as possible.

Outside on the front porch, Cranik paused. His beady black eyes narrowed, and he lifted his nose into the air, sniffing. Then he slowly placed the firewood down on the porch and casually walked back to his truck, taking a cell phone out of his coat pocket. He selected the "text messaging" option on the menu and typed in a few words before flipping the phone back closed and hurrying up the porch steps.

Graye noticed that Cranik left the firewood on the porch, but didn't think twice on it. As Cranik stepped inside, the grey hedgehog raised the fireplace poker and swung it down towards the werewolf's head.

But as soon as Cranik stepped into the house, he spun to the left and caught the iron poker in one meaty hand before socking Graye right in the stomach with the other.

Graye let go of the weapon and lurched backward, his breath rushing out of his lungs with a _whoosh_. Cranik tossed the fireplace poker to the side, grabbed Graye under both arms, and hurled him across the room.

Graye crashed into the leather sofa, knocking it backwards. Immediately Cranik was on top of him, pummeling him with his gigantic fists and snarling incomprehensible curses at him. Graye slammed both feet into Cranik's stomach, then lunged forward and smashed his elbow into the creature's face as Cranik stumbled backwards.

They battled across the living room in a flurry of kicks, punches, and jabs.

Graye swung his fist downward towards Cranik, who grabbed his wrist and twisted it counterclockwise fiercely. Graye felt a surge of pain shoot up his right arm as his bones came closer and closer to the breaking point. Gathering strength in his leg muscles, Graye crouched down and flipped in the direction his arm was being twisted, releasing the pressure on his bones. Graye swung his foot up, kicking a surprised Cranik in the chin.

Cranik was knocked backwards, clutching his chin. One of his fangs had torn through his lower lip, and blood was running down his hairy chin. He lunged at Graye, swiping at the hedgehog's face with one claw.

Graye slid backwards, narrowly avoiding being slashed across the face, but didn't have time to dodge a kick to his chest. Graye's feet left the floor and he toppled over backwards, smashing into the glass coffee table in the middle of the room. Graye realized that Cranik was much stronger than he was- stronger than he would ever be. Graye had to rely on his reflexes, instincts, and most of all, his fight training.

Cranik lifted one foot to stomp on Graye's head, and a word came to his mind, a voice that seemed to be shouting in his ear- the voice of his martial arts trainer, almost ten years earlier.

_Vallo!_

Graye raised both hands and caught Cranik's foot before lifting his own leg and kicking the werewolf in the crotch.

Cranik howled and fell backwards, his hands between his legs. Graye leapt to his feet, ignoring the shards of glass from the coffee table that cut into his back.

Cranik feebly swung at Graye again, aiming for his throat. Graye caught the fist, and another word came to his mind.

_Ledo!_

Graye swung his right leg up, kicking Cranik under the rib cage forcefully. Cranik fell to the side, crashing into the kitchen counter.

Graye rushed forward to press his attack. Suddenly Cranik whirled around, his hand flashing. Graye pulled back just in time to avoid receiving a gruesome slash across his chest from the ten-inch fishing knife that had been laying on the counter.

Graye backed away, clutching the red line that slashed diagonally across his chest. Cranik lunged forward, slashing downward with the knife. Graye snatched up one of the pillows that had been knocked off the sofa and held it in front of his face, blocking the knife. The pillow was slashed in half from the razor sharp blade, and Graye thrust it into Cranik's face, causing the werewolf to stumble backwards.

Graye ducked around Cranik as he swung again and rushed into the kitchen, his hands groping for a weapon of any sort. Cranik crept up behind him and leapt forward, raising the knife over his head.

Graye whirled around and grabbed Cranik's wrist with one hand, then reached back, gripped a steel spatula, and swung it into Cranik's snout with the other.

The werewolf yelped and jumped backwards, clutching the side of his nose. Then he rushed forward again, swinging the knife like a maniac.

Graye ducked to the left and right, dodging every blow and delivering a few of his own with a snap from the spatula. He swung it again for another blow, but Cranik batted it out of Graye's hand, grabbed the hedgehog by the throat, and stabbed the knife downwards. Graye twisted to the side to avoid being stabbed in the chest, but instead received a brutal slash in the shoulder.

He cried out in pain and kneed Cranik in the stomach before pulling free of his grip. Cranik slashed down at Graye again, but Graye grabbed a dishtowel from the counter, rolled around behind the werewolf, and wrapped the towel around his throat.

Cranik thrashed and bucked, trying desperately to shake Graye loose, but the hedgehog wouldn't let go, even when Cranik leapt backwards, slamming Graye into the wall. Graye gritted his teeth against the pain and tried to hold on, but when Cranik reached over his shoulders and sank his claws into Graye's back, he had to let go.

Cranik whirled around and smashed his elbow against Graye's face, knocking him against the kitchen counter, where it appeared an assortment of coupons were being cut from newspapers with a large, bulky pair of scissors. Cranik swept the fishing knife off the floor and leaped at Graye once again, a loud roar escaping his open mouth.

A final whisper came to Graye's mind.

_Caedo_!

Graye spun around in, caught Cranik's hand, and stabbed the pair of scissors into his wrist. Cranik screamed in pain and dropped the knife, trying to pull away from Graye. The hedgehog wrenched the scissors out, raised his hand again, and plunged the scissors into Cranik's throat.

The werewolf gurgled futilely, his hands thrashing about wildly, trying to cover the wound in his throat. Graye let go of Cranik's wrist and pushed on the scissors with both hands, sinking them even deeper into the hairy throat of his enemy. Cranik choked and gasped, blood bubbling out of his neck and mouth, until at last his thrashing stopped. His eyelids drooped and Cranik fell to the floor, dead.

Graye let go of the scissors, panting heavily. His white gloves were completely soaked through with blood, and sweat poured down his face, stinging his eyes.

He didn't have time to recover though. He had just begun to think of ways to get rid of the body and mop up the blood when he heard the sound of an engine rumbling in the distance.

Graye limped over to the window and pulled back one of the cream colored curtains, staining it with the blood on his gloves. Below, creeping towards the house on the hill, was a black SUV with tinted windows and a blank licence plate. Alarmed, Graye rushed over to Cranik's body and began to search him. Somehow he had warned someone of Graye's presence.

Graye pulled the cell phone from Cranik's leather jacket pocket and flipped it open to see a text message on the screen:

_B there in 10 min. hang on_

Below was the original message Cranik had sent.

_Someone here. Need help._Graye's eyes widened a he read the messages. Outside, the SUV had just reached the sign reading _NO TRESPASSING_.

Graye jumped to his feet. The message had been sent over eight minutes before. The backup would be arriving any minute. Graye considered following the others down into the tunnels, but quickly decided not to. The backup could follow him down and ruin everything. Even if he managed to take out the backup that was on the way then, there would no doubt be dozens more coming afterward, men that he couldn't defeat on his own. He had to block off the entrance to the tunnel somehow.

Graye's eyes darted around the room, passing over the shotgun, the coupons on the kitchen counter top, and the gas stove. He rummaged through Cranik's pocket once more, pulling out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He tossed the cigarettes away, but kept the lighter.

Graye rushed over to the shotgun hanging over the fireplace and checked inside it. _Damn it_, he thought to himself. There were shells inside of it, and it most likely worked.

His fingers flying, Graye tore a strip of leather from the couch and tied it to the trigger before securing the shotgun in the rafters, aiming it towards the front door. He tied the strip to the door handle, then opened the door. The trigger _clicked_ as the strip of leather pulled it. Graye ran forward and cocked the shotgun, then turned every burner on the gas stove on. Graye scraped together the coupons and newspaper clippings on the counter top, then lit the pile with the lighter.

The SUV pulled into the driveway outside. Almost as soon as it came to a stop, five anthropomorphic cats jumped out, switching the safety buttons on their semi-automatic pistols off. They rushed towards the door and the driver of the SUV opened it.

_Ka-BLAM!_ The cat was hit full in the face with a blast from the shotgun. As soon as he heard the shot, Graye smashed the bathroom window of the cottage and climbed outside while the alarmed cat thugs fired blindly into the building, thinking that an attacker with a shotgun awaited them inside. Graye ran away from the house, his legs thumping against grass and dirt. When he reached the hill he rolled down the side, not minding the briars and branches that scratched at his face and body.

Up above, the four remaining cat thugs entered the house cautiously, their weapons raised. No sooner did they see the body of Cranik and the burning papers on the counter did the gas from the stove ignite the air.

The explosion tore through the house, ripping up the shingles on the roof and sending the two vehicles in the driveway rolling onto their sides.

Graye heard the blast, but didn't stop rolling until he'd reached the bottom of the hill. He lay on dirt, rocks, and grass, panting heavily. At last he stood up and began limping westward in the direction of Henri's mansion. Their "flawless plan" had backfired horribly. It was time for them to improvise.

--

**A/N:** Good news: I finished writing this story. Here's hoping my computer doesn't screw up the file again, or else I'd have to retype two more chapters. That would NOT be fun. So only two more weeks left of this story... yay.


	15. Improvise

Jon, Jeanne, Silver, and Sonic all froze when they heard the distant rumble of the explosion. In the ten minutes that had passed since entering the tunnels, they had gotten quite far without encountering much resistance.

There was no lighting in the man-made tunnels dug under the mountains, so the four of them had to rely on their night vision goggles to see anything. Sonic often took them away from his face to rub his eyes when the constant green tint began to make his eyes water.

They had only passed two guards in the tunnel thus far, each carrying a flashlight and an Uzi submachine gun. Jeanne had snuck up and broken the first ones neck, while Silver telekinetically hurled the second into the rock wall, knocking him unconscious.

They walked on further, slinking through the shadows as silently as possible. Sonic wished that he could just run to the safe with the others, but to do so would risk alerting any guards.

"Hang on," said Jon quietly, holding up one hand. Further down in the tunnel they heard footsteps and a cat carrying a flashlight rounded a bend in the tunnel, yawning.

The four heroes slipped to the side of the tunnel, hiding behind a large chunk of rock that had fallen out of the wall. The cat walked by them absent-mindedly, kicking at the rocks on the dirt floor. When he had passed them by, Jon held out one hand to tell the others to stay put.

Crouching low, his hands almost reaching the floor, he crept up behind the cat. Sonic grimaced as he heard a low cry, followed by a sickening _squish_. Jon walked back, wiping blood off a knife in his hand. The Pantheon may not be entirely made of psychopaths, but all of its members were as brutal and cold as a common killer.

"Come on, it should be close," Jon said. He lead them down the tunnel for almost another half hour, dodging, knocking out, and killing any guards they encountered. After a while, Sonic noticed that the floor was beginning to become more uneven, and the walls were beginning to sparkle with a faint light. Before he knew it, they were standing in the dimly lit natural cavern underneath Tomcat Estate.

It was light enough for them to see without their goggles, so they removed them and slung them around their necks. There were no bulbs nearby, at least none that Sonic could see, but the light was being reflected down the tunnel by the glittering rock walls.

"It's pretty beautiful," said Silver, examining the stalagmites and stalactites on the floor and ceiling. "Too bad it has to belong to such a filthy bastard."

Jon and Jeanne looked at each other and grunted in agreement.

"Come on," said Jeanne.

"We're close," said Jon.

They were about to continue on when the walkie-talkie at Jon's hip crackled with static.

"Are you four there? Jon?" Graye's voice hissed through the static.

"We're here. What's wrong?" asked Jeanne as Jon unclipped the walkie-talkie from his belt.

"There was a problem. They knew I was there, and backup came. I had to destroy the cottage so they couldn't get into the tunnels," said Graye.

Jon blinked. "Then how are we going to get out?" he asked, alarmed.

"I'm just at the edge of Tomcat Estate right now. I'll join up with Ice and Spider as quickly as I can. We'll have to clear a path for you to get out through the mansion itself," Graye said.

Jeanne and Jon looked at each other, grimacing. "I don't like this," Jeanne said.

"Yeah, me neither..." said Sonic, blinking.

Jon and Jeanne turned and gave him a look that said _when did you become part of this conversation?_

"Just trust me. Go on as normal, just get out into the mansion instead of heading back to the cottage," said Graye.

"Alright," Jon muttered. He clicked off the walkie-talkie and nodded to Sonic and Silver. "Come on. It's just a little ways away," he said.

They crept on, luckily meeting no guards along the way. After a little while of walking they came to a large, steel door cut into the stone. Two halogen lightbulbs glowed on either side of the door, giving the natural caverns light, and a bright light shone from the small space underneath the door.

"This is it," said Jeanne. "Everyone put their goggles back on."

Everyone did. After they were all set, Jon unhooked the walkie-talkie from his belt again and modified the radio frequency. "Are you guys ready?" he asked into the walkie-talkie.

There was a hiss of static on the other end of the line, followed by a, "Yeah," that came from Erin.

"Do it."

Almost immediately, the lights flickered, blazed brightly for a brief moment, then cut out altogether.

"Wait..." Jeanne said slowly.

The lights slowly began to come back, powered by the generator miles away. Suddenly they too cut out, plunging the tunnels into darkness once again.

There were muffled shouts of alarm and anger from the other side of the steel door. It screeched open and a guard stumbled out, waving his hand through the air blindly. There was a low _crack_ as Sonic punched him in the face and the guard fell to the ground, unconscious.

The four heroes rushed inside. Sonic curled into a ball and rebounded off a wall, ricocheting off the floor, guards, the ceiling, and other guards. Silver swept his hand through the air, wrenching the machine guns out of three guards hands and telekinetically smashing the butt of each rifle against the side of each guards head.

Jon and Jeanne rolled inside, spinning, flipping, kicking, and striking with speed that would impress Sonic. They moved in perfect unison, as though they were two halves of a single warrior. Jon dropkicked a guard in the face and was caught by Jeanne before he fell to the ground; Jon, in turn, flipped her over his shoulders and hurled her at two more guards, who she promptly kicked in the face.

In less than thirty seconds the room was clear of enemies.

In the great hall of Henri's mansion, three thugs rushed towards the wide, velvet carpet in front of the main door. They had almost reached it when a white blur smashed through a domed window in the ceiling, landing on one, then springing up and kicking the other in the throat. The third guard raised an Uzi in his hands, but a dark red shape dropped from the broken window, landed behind him, and snapped his neck.

As if they hadn't appeared at all, Ice and Spider vanished into the shadows in the great hall. Minutes later, four more guards ran into the room only to meet the same fate.

In the cavern below, Sonic looked up to spot a monstrous metal door in the far wall of the cavern. "Woah. You sure you can take that thing down?" he asked Silver.

"I don't know," said Silver. Moving forward, he took a deep breath, extended both arms, and tried to move the door. Nothing happened. "Hang on, I can do it," Silver insisted as Jon stepped forward. _I think_, he thought. Closing his eyes, he opened both palms once again, feeling energy flow to them from his mind. Slowly, a ring of blue light appeared on each of Silvers palms, and the door began to shake. Silver grimaced, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. It was too much... too heavy.

The door began to rattle violently on its metal hinges. Sweat began to break out on Silver's forehead. There was a loud, ear-splitting screech, and the door began to peel away from the wall. It shuddered and groaned, the steel plating on the outside beginning to crumple. At last, with a heavy _bang_, the door flew off its hinges and smashed into the western wall of the cave.

Sonic laughed. "Holy crap! You did it!" he shouted. He rushed forward, leaving Silver on his knees, exhausted. Sonic, Jon, and Jeanne rushed into the gigantic vault, frantically looking around for the Astrum Emerald.

Sonic was both shocked and disgusted with the contents of the safe. Stacked in one corner was what appeared to be wad upon wad of hundred dollar bills. Piled in another were hundreds of clear, plastic packages containing narcotics, and also piled in the safe were hundreds of large, black duffel bags.

Jon unzipped one of the bags, then grinned. He removed an Uzi and two clips from the bag and tossed them to Jeanne before taking out an automatic pistol and two clips for himself. "This should make getting out of here a little easier," he said. He looked at Sonic, then at Silver as the white hedgehog staggered into the safe. "Either of you want a gun?" he asked.

"No," they said in unison.

Under one of the stacks of money came a faint, red glow. Sonic leaped forward, digging through the pile of money until he found what he was looking for- a diamond shaped gem, no bigger than one of the Chaos Emeralds. This was the Astrum Emerald.

"I found it!" he shouted to the others, stuffing the Astrum Emerald into his rucksack along with the Chaos Emeralds.

Jeanne nodded. "Good. Now let's get out of here. The door into the mansion is on the ceiling," she said, gesturing upwards. Sure enough, a large, square shaped metal door was attached to the ceiling. The four heroes rushed up a catwalk winding around the cavern until they reached the ladder leading up into the mansion.

Silver raised his hand, throwing the metal door off its hinges. The four of them scurried up the ladder and into the great hall of the mansion.

Sonic ducked to avoid being struck in the face by a stray bullet. Further down in the hall, Sonic could see Spider agilely bounding off walls, dodging shots from the thugs in the mansion. Ice flew towards one of the guards, tackling him to the ground before he could squeeze off any more shots.

"Come on!" Silver said to Sonic, rushing towards the front door as Jon and Jeanne hurried to help their fellow Pantheon members. The two hedgehogs burst through the front door and began to rush down the front steps, but stopped as a car pulled up in front of the mansion.

"Oh, no," Sonic muttered.

Both hedgehogs ducked back inside, slamming the double doors shut behind them as a figure with a machine gun leaned out the window and began firing at them.

"Shit! What do we do?" cried Sonic.

"I don't know, I thought we'd be leaving through the front!" Silver shouted back over the roar of gunfire. Both of them dashed past the four Pantheon members fighting the seemingly endless stream of guards, rushing into a hallway branching off to the eastern wing of the mansion.

They ran on for a few moments, panting. Suddenly, three cats appeared at the end of the hall.

"Hey!" one shouted, pulling a pistol from his belt. Sonic and Silver looked at one another, then spun to the side as the cats began firing, smashing through another door.

Inside the room was none other than Elza the Cat, Henri the Tomcat's daughter and the young cat Sonic had seen at the ball.

"What are you doing in my _room?_" Elza screamed, alarmed. She had heard the gunshots and had locked herself in her bedroom, but at the moment that didn't seem to be saving her from danger.

"Look, just stay calm. We won't hurt you," said Silver, slamming the door shut and telekinetically holding it closed.

Sonic looked out the window, then at a chair sitting in front of a desk in the corner of a room. "Sorry about this," Sonic said sincerely to Elza. He picked up the chair and hurled it through the closed window, then turned to Silver. "Where's the museum?" he asked.

"I don't know, I can't_ think_ right now! People are shooting at us!" Silver shouted. He flinched as one of the thugs shot at the door from the other side, but the telekinetic energy holding the door shut also kept the bullet from passing through the wood.

"Well then how am I supposed to find it! I have to get out of here!" Sonic cried.

Silver thought frantically for a moment. "Look, just start running. If I don't buzz you with my walkie-talkie, wait for me at Memorial Park. I'll hold these guys off for a bit and find you there, okay?" he asked.

"Fine, whatever!" Sonic shouted. With that, he dove out the window and took off running down the mountain and towards the city.

By then, the cats outside were pounding on the door furiously, trying desperately to knock it down. With a single burst of telekinetic energy Silver threw the door off its hinges, slamming it and the guards into the far wall of the corridor.

"Look, can you do me a big favor and not describe me to anyone?" Silver asked, turning to Elza.

_Blam!_ A bullet from a revolver Elza had pulled from her bedside table drawer struck Silver through the shoulder, sending him crashing against the wall. There was a low _crunch_ from under the belt of the jeans Silver was wearing, though Silver didn't notice it.

Elza shouted furiously and aimed the revolver at Silver's head, but another blast of telekinetic energy sent the gun flying out of her hand and out of the window. She leapt up and starting hitting him in the face, gritting her teeth.

With a cry of pain, Silver lifted one boot and kicked her in the stomach, sending her crashing back into the wall.

Silver screamed in pain, grimacing as he stood to his feet. _Damn, this hurts! It isn't like in the movies_, he thought. "Stay there!" he shouted at Elza before she could move. He staggered towards the broken window and climbed out, running as quickly as he could towards the sedan in the driveway that had recently pulled up. It was empty, but the key was still in the ignition.

Clutching the wound in his shoulder, groaning in pain, Silver climbed into the drivers seat and started the car. On normal circumstances he would have telekinetically flown to Memorial Park, but this wasn't a normal circumstance. He had just been shot.

Silver put the car in gear and reached back into his belt for the walkie-talkie. All he found were bits of twisted wires and plastic. He grimaced in both pain and shock before throwing the remnants of the walkie-talkie out the window. He had to reach Sonic by car now.

He sped down the driveway, panting. As he reached the metal main gate, he telekinetically shoved a guard aside and smashed through the gate before speeding down the mountainside as fast as possible. Unbeknownst to him, the guard he had avoided running over quickly hopped into his own sedan and sped off in pursuit of the white hedgehog.

* * *

Outside the mansion, Graye crept over to one of the windows, peering inside. It appeared that the Pantheon was having a shootout with the members of the Cat's Eye inside. He couldn't rush into the middle of the gunfight- as a matter of fact, he had no gun himself.

Graye carefully jumped up and began scaling the white wall of the mansion, his fingers finding the tiniest cracks and crevices to hold on to. He climbed up to a wide balcony stretching all the way around the upper mansion, crouching to avoid being seen through one of the large windows in the walls.

He cautiously lifted his head and peered through the window, hearing shouts and loud protests of anger coming from inside. In the room was Judith, Henri's wife, standing beside Henri as he argued with a bodyguard. In Henri's hand was a large, heavy-caliber pistol. Apparently he wanted to go down and join the shootout down below, but his bodyguard wouldn't let him.

Graye grimaced and continued down the balcony. That wasn't a room he wanted to enter the mansion through.

After sneaking halfway around the mansion and finding no suitable room to enter, Graye came to a split in the balcony above the back door of the mansion. The end of the other balcony was a over four meters away. Graye took a deep breath, backed up, and dashed forward, ignoring the pain in his leg that gave him a limp in his walk. He leapt over the gap, rolled over one shoulder to reduce the impact, and stood up, brushing dirt off himself.

He shouldn't have stood up. Two guards were keeping watch in the next room, a shotgun in each's hands. With alarmed shouts, they aimed their guns at him and began to fire. Graye had just enough time to duck out of the way.

The guards rushed towards the door leading out to the balcony, reloading their guns. One of the cats emerged from the doorway, but was grabbed by Graye and smashed back into the doorway as the second cat emerged, knocking the second cat out cold.

Graye tossed the shotgun aside and let the cat stand up before kicking him in both the stomach and throat, sending him toppling over the railing of the balcony. Then the hedgehog picked up the shotgun and hurried into the mansion, eager to join his companions.

He rushed down the hall, flying down the stairwell that lead into the great hall and rolling across the floor, taking cover behind the giant, empty display stand that once housed the Astrum Emerald. Jon, Jeanne, Ice and Spider were all taking cover behind the stand as well.

"It sure took you long enough to get here," Spider snickered, reloading a pistol he had scrounged from one of the dead bodies of the guards. He aimed back and blind-fired, grazing a Cat's Eye thug across the neck.

"Sorry, I was busy fighting a giant werewolf with a spatula," Graye said sarcastically, peeking around the corner of the display stand. There were seven guards, all armed with fully automatic machine guns. One of them stepped out of cover an took aim at Jon's exposed elbow, but was blown off his feet by a shotgun shell through his chest.

"How many are there?" asked Ice. She was the only one who didn't have a firearm. She had already spent all of the ammo in her weapon.

"Uh... six," Jeanne said, checking. She looked at Graye. "Do we make a run for it?" she asked.

Graye checked the shotgun in his hands. There were only seven shells left in it. He grimaced and said, "You guys run. Meet up with the others. I'll cover you," he said. He looked at Ice. "Take over for me when I'm gone, will you?" he asked.

The others all blinked. "You can't!" Ice exclaimed over the roar of gunfire.

"I can. Lead them in my place, Ice," Graye said.

"I'll stay," said Spider flatly. "You go, Graye. They need you as a leader. No matter what you think, you're what's keeping us together," he said.

Graye looked at Spider, then at the six Cat's Eye thugs. He nodded slowly. "Alright," he said. "Alright. When I count to three, we make a run for the door. Cover us, Spider," he said.

Spider nodded, gripping the pistol tightly. "Go then," he said.

"One," said Graye. Everyone raised their weapons. "Two," he counted. Graye, Ice, Jeanne and Jon all tensed, ready to spring from cover. "_Three!_"

They leapt forward, guns blazing, feet flying. Smoke and ammo casings filled the air, accompanied by the low _spaks_ of pistols, the rumble of Graye's shotgun, and the rattling of machine guns.

Graye, Ice, and the twins smashed through the door, flinging their empty weapons to the ground and running as fast as they could. They ran clear of the gate, tumbled down the mountainside, then disappeared under the shadow of the trees.

Spider rolled out of cover towards the door, shooting the pistol wildly. If there was a chance that he could survive, he would take it.

A thug poked his head out of cover and was instantly shot in the face by Spider.

Spider dashed down the hall towards the door, shooting the pistol behind him. Another of the guards fell. Spider grinned. He was out the door. He was on the steps of the mansion. He was going to-

_Blam!_

Spider cried out and dropped to the ground as a bullet punched a hole in his thigh. The machine gun fire in the main hall ceased, and as Spider tried to crawl away, a lone figure advanced, a pistol in hand.

It was Henri, dressed in a red button-up shirt and black slacks, a snarl of rage on his face. He shot Spider again, twice in the back, once in the back of the neck.

Still, Spider crawled forward, his thin limbs trembling with effort.

Henri wrapped an arm around his neck, lifted him up, and shot him in the side of the head, spattering Spider's brains over Henri's sleeve.

Henri dropped the dead hedgehog to the ground, panting heavily. He turned to his henchmen, his eyes burning with fury. "My wife and I were trying to watch TV! What the fuck is all this shooting about?" he shouted.

"They just appeared, sir. Out of nowhere. We don't know why," said one of the thugs, blinking.

Henri lifted his sleeve to wipe blood away from one cheek, only to see that there was already blood on his sleeve. He looked around at all the bodies, then took a deep breath. "Okay," he said. "Clean up all the blood. Get rid of the bodies," he said, walking back into the mansion.

"Where?"

"Wherever you think nobody will _look!_" shouted Henri.

"But, come on, sir. These people have families, we can't just throw them in a river some–"

Henri went off like a bomb, shooting the Cat's Eye thug in the face three times. The thug's body jerked suddenly, then crashed to the floor with bullet holes in his forehead, muzzle, and jaw. "Any more of you shitheads want to talk back?" Henri screeched, his teeth bared.

The three remaining Cat's Eye thugs quickly shook their heads.

"_Good!_" Henri shouted. He flicked the safety on the pistol, tucked it into his belt, then turned to one of the guards. "Check my safe. See if they were trying to steal anything," he said.

--

**A/N:** Well, I hope this rather mindlessly action-packed chapter was enjoyable enough to read... I certainly enjoyed writing it. Please review, and only one more chapter left for this story!


	16. Home Sweet Home

Silver tried to stop trembling as he drove, but he couldn't. One hand was held over the bullet wound in his shoulder, while the other was on the steering wheel.

_Think. Think! Where did I tell Sonic to go?_ he thought to himself. _Memorial Park, that's it! Shit, I'm losing blood fast. No time for a hospital right now though_, he thought, checking his wound.

The bullet had passed through his shoulder, and the gun that had shot him had been quite low caliber, so there was no gaping hole. If he could only stop the bleeding for a bit, he could probably make it to Sonic, and then to a hosptial.

Silver blinked, seeing a street vendor selling T-shirts on the corner of a street. He had just entered Southern City and was making his way to Memorial Park, where Sonic was waiting for him.

Silver pulled the car over next to the vendor and rolled down the window. The vendor, a floppy-eared hare, smiled at him.

"How's it going, sir? Want a shirt? There's a ten percent discount on the _I Heart Southern City_ ones," the hare said, grinning.

Without replying, Silver reached out to the stand with one hand and telekinetically summoned one of the shirts to him. He drove away, leaving the stunned vendor to gape at what Silver had just done.

Silver wrapped the shirt around his shoulder, the pain almost becoming unbearable. Sweat had broken out on his forehead. He looked up at a street sign to check his location.

_Dillon Street. Only a few blocks away from Memorial Park_, thought Silver in relief.

_Crash!_ A green sedan with tinted windows smashed into the back of the car Silver was driving. Alarmed, Silver looked in the rearview mirror to see what was going on.

Still driving, the figure in the green sedan leaned out one window, aimed a pistol at Silver's car, and fired three shots.

Silver ducked, grimacing at the pain that flared up in his shoulder. Had he been followed from Henri's Mansion? He supposed it didn't matter. An unsilenced weapon had been fired in public. People were already running for cover, screaming, and police would be all over the scene in minutes.

Silver slammed his foot down on the gas pedal and tore forward, weaving through cars as best he could. The thug in the sedan followed, occasionally shooting out the window.

An unwitting cab driver turned a corner, almost smashing into Silver's vehicle head-on. Almost. Silver telekinetically pushed it aside at the last second.

The green sedan screeched forward, pulling up to the side of Silver's car. The driver pulled out his gun and aimed for Silver briefly before pulling the trigger. Silver flinched and raised one hand, freezing the bullets in midair before they hit him in the side of the head.

The thug in the sedan ran out of ammo, but he wasn't done yet. He slammed his vehicle into Silver's, smashing them both against the side of a large Jeep. Both vehicles careened off the Jeep, almost spinning out of control. The Cat's Eye driver smashed the side of his sedan into Silver's car, pinning the white hedgehog between both vehicles.

Silver slammed his foot on the brake pedal, pulling his vehicle out of the tight space between the Jeep and the other sedan. Both the tires and side doors on the car screeched noisily as he came to an abrupt halt, then Silver put the car in reverse and began backing up.

_Wham!_ The back of Silver's car smashed into the front of a van, jarring Silver in his seat. The rear window of the car shattered, sending tiny bits of glass into Silver's shoulders and the back of his neck.

Silver shifted the automatic transmission car into D, slammed one foot down on the gas, and screeched around a corner, narrowly avoiding three police cruisers.

One of the police cars stopped the Cat's Eye thug in the green sedan and wrenched him out of his car, slapping handcuffs over his wrists. The other two peeled off in pursuit of Silver's near-totaled black sedan.

Silver screeched around another corner in the car, looking back quickly. The two police cars were right behind him, their sirens blaring.

Silver should have been watching where he was going. He smashed through a vacant bus stop shelter and rattled uneasily into an alleyway, careening off the tight walls. The black paint scraped off the sides of his car onto the brick walls, and sparks flew up onto the windows and into the car.

Behind him, the police cars stopped, not daring to follow him into the alley. They backed away, trying to find a way around.

Silver's car shot out of the alleyway like a twisted, black bullet, soaring through the air before smashing into the middle of a busy highway.

_Bam! Smash! Crash!_ Silver was bombarded by speeding cars, and struggled to maintain control of his own. He checked his shoulder once again, seeing that the blood had soaked all the way through the shirt by then.

A tractor-trailer smashed into the rear of Silver's vehicle, tearing almost the entire rear off of the car and sending it spinning out of control.

Silver clutched the steering wheel, spinning it so that he was facing the other side of the highway. He looked to the side to see a wall of cars coming towards him. Silver held up one hand, telekinetically stopping every car in its tracks. There was a massive car pileup further down along the road, but Silver didn't have time to care. He tore forward, smashing through the thin metal guardrail on the outside edge of the highway and speeding out towards another road. He looked back and sighed.

He had lost the police. At least for the moment. He had been seen now, and could still be recognized by other officers. He was a fugitive.

Silver drove on as casually as he could before driving into a wide alleyway and parking the car in the darkness. He hurried out of the alley, gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder.

Passing by a chilli dog stand on his way towards the park, he grabbed two handfuls of napkins and stuffed them under the bloody shirt wrapped around his shoulder. Most people on the street stepped out of the way when they saw the blood-soaked T-shirt Silver had used to stall the flow of blood. Some of them screamed.

Silver passed a clothing store as well. He ducked inside, making sure to avoid being seen, and tore the tags off a dark red shirt and a black jacket. He replaced the bloody shirt around his shoulder with the dark red one, then put on the black jacket over it. Both colors would cover up any blood that bled up through the cloth. As he walked out, Silver took a pair of glasses from a stand to alter his facial appearance a little.

Exiting the store, he headed down the street, walking a few blocks, turning a few corners, then walking some more. A few cops he passed by on the street looked at him curiously, but that was all. Silver quickened his pace.

In a few minutes he was standing at the entrance of Memorial Park, looking up at King Flare's monument. He wanted to stand there and think about the old king, a cat that had been like a father to him, but he had no time for reminiscing. He headed into the park, his shoulders hunched.

Standing a few meters into the park was Sonic, who was fidgeting nervously and checking the rucksack on his back every so often.

"Hey," Silver grunted painfully, walking up to Sonic.

Sonic blinked. "Why are you wearing glasses?" he asked.

"A disguise. I got shot and couldn't contact you with the radios. I think the police are looking for me," Silver said.

"Jesus, you got shot? Where?" Sonic asked, hurrying towards Silver as the white hedgehog began leading him away from the park.

"The shoulder. Follow me, the museum is close," Silver rasped.

"You should get to a hospital. Seriously, just show me the way to the museum, then get yourself to a doctor," said Sonic.

"I can't, I'll be arrested if they recognize me. Blaze had medical kits at her apartment, I might be able to patch myself up there. Just come _on_, before I bleed to death," Silver said.

They walked a few blocks, Sonic noticing that Silver was becoming pale rand paler with every passing minute. After about nine minutes of walking, they reached the front entrance to the museum.

"There," said Silver. He turned and began to walk away hurriedly. "I really need to be going now..." he said softly.

"Wait, what should I say?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know... just tell them that you're returning an item to the museum and that you would like to personally set it back in its place. They'll come to you with paperwork later, but you should be gone by then," Silver said. He turned and began to walk away briskly.

"Uh... Silver?" Sonic said.

"What?"

"Say bye to Blaze for me. And... see you. I'll miss both you guys," Sonic said.

Silver stared at him for a moment. "Will do. See you," he said. And with that he rounded a corner and disappeared.

Sonic looked up at the museum door, took a deep breath, and walked inside. His feet seemed to make deafening _clopping_ noises as he strode over the tiled floor to the front desk.

"Hello? How can I help you?" asked the chipmunk at the desk.

"Uh, hi. I'd like to return an item that I believe belongs to this museum. I... found it in a trash can," he said slowly. _Great. How many people go searching trough trash cans for stuff? Now you've made yourself look like a bum_, he thought.

The chipmunk looked at Sonic's disheveled appearance, torn up rucksack, and dirty face. "I see," he said. "Well, if you would just hand it over to me, I'll give it to the guards for them to replace later today," he said.

"Well, this is pretty big. I was wondering if I could have the honor of replacing it myself?" Sonic asked.

The chipmunk frowned. "What is it?" he asked.

Sonic's only reply was to reach back and pull the Astrum Emerald out of his rucksack.

"Oh! Wow," said the chipmunk, blinking. "This had been missing for years! And you say you found it in a trash can?" he asked in awe.

"Yep."

The chipmunk shook his head. "The nerve of some people, throwing away important pieces of our history. Well, mister hedgehog sir, I think it would be quite the honor to put this back where it belongs," he said. He waved a wolf security guard over. "Dave, can you lead this young man down to the Astrum Emerald vault?" he asked.

The guard looked at the emerald, then at Sonic. He nodded, then led Sonic over to an elevator in the corner of the first floor.

"So what's this for? There's only two floors here," Sonic said to the guard, frowning.

"That's what everyone else thinks," said the wolf, leading Sonic into the elevator. He slid an ID card into a slot where the buttons should have been, the elevator doors closed, and the elevator began moving downward.

The door opened and they stepped out into a long, shining metal hallway. There was another door at the end, with yet another slot for an ID card. Sonic and the wolf stepped forward, and the wolf opened the door with his card.

Sonic's breath caught as the door opened. In the middle of the cold, metal vault was a stone shrine not much different from the shrine of the Master Emerald. Three stone pillars with elaborately carved designs in them rose from the edges of the shrine, and in the center was a large, round slot for the Astrum Emerald.

Sonic grinned. "I'm here," he said. He stepped forward and climbed the set of stone stairs leading up to the shrine, followed by the security guard. Sonic approached the slot tentatively, grasping the Astrum Emerald tightly in one hand. He could feel it vibrating in his palm, desperately wishing to return to its home.

Sonic knelt down and set the Astrum Emerald in its shrine.

With an explosion of light, the Astrum Emerald ignited with energy. It blazed like a crimson torch in a dark cave, almost blinding Sonic. He stepped away from the emerald, shielding his eyes with one hand.

"So what now?" asked the security guard behind him, hooking his thumbs into his belt.

Sonic grinned. "Just give me two seconds, and I'll be out of here for good," he said excitedly. He stepped forward, reaching back to remove the rucksack from his shoulders.

"I don't think you will, blue hedgehog," said the guard. There was a _click_ behind Sonic, and he felt the cold muzzle of a pistol pressed against the back of his neck.

Sonic froze, his blood turning to ice in his veins. His eyes were wide and staring, and his mouth open. "You," he said softly. "How did _you_ get here?" he cried.

Behind him, the security guards fur rippled and became shorter and lighter in color. In a matter of seconds the wolf was gone, replaced by Apollo. "How do you think?" Apollo asked Sonic, removing the guard's hat and tearing the now loose shirt away from his torso.

Sonic raised his hands in the air, breathing heavily. "And how did you find out I would be here?" he asked. He tensed his muscles, ready to defend himself. He would have to be quick. Quicker, perhaps, than he had ever been in his life.

"Pure coincidence. I saw some of my old teammates destroying a few electrical generators, so I ask them what they're doing. Instead of just telling me, the idiots attack. So I absorb two of them and interrogate the third until she tells me. Then I absorb her too, come here, and wait for you," Apollo said.

"What do you want, Apollo?" Sonic asked, trying to distract Apollo further.

"I want my revenge, blue hedgehog, and I'm going to get it," Apollo said. Holding the pistol against Sonics head, he raised another, glowing hand and reached towards his neck. "This is going to hurt. A _lot–_"

Sonic whirled around faster than Apollo could see, gripping both of Apollos wrists.

Apollo snarled in anger, taken by surprise by the sudden movement. He tried to force his glowing hand back down to Sonics forehead, but Sonic lifted one leg and kneed him in the stomach.

Apollo lurched, coughing. He furiously bent his right wrist inward, aiming the pistol above Sonics left eye.

Sonic let go of Apollos other wrist and spun around so that his back was pressed against Apollos chest and the orange hedgehogs right hand was pinned under Sonics armpit.

In his anger, Apollo forgot all about absorbing Sonics energy. He wrapped one arm around the blue hedgehogs neck and squeezed, trying to loosen Sonics grip on his wrist.

Sonic slammed his elbow into Apollos stomach and pulled the orange hedgehogs wrist downward, aiming the gun at the floor. He tugged Apollos hand, making him pull the trigger. If he was lucky, Sonic could expel all of the bullets from the clip, rendering the gun useless.

There were three _crack, spang_s as three bullet fired from the gun and ricocheted off the metal floor. On the floor above, five more security guards heard the shots and rushed to the elevator.

Sonic wrenched Apollos hand back again, firing a fourth bullet. It ricocheted off the floor and struck one of the fluorescent lightbulbs running across the ceiling, making the lights in the vault flicker ominously.

Apollo tried to pull his hand out of Sonics grasp, but couldn't. Finally he drove Sonic forward and cracked the blue hedgehogs head against the stone stairs of the shrine.

Sonic collapsed, dazed. Blood streamed into his eyes from a cut above one eye, and he didn't have the strength left to pin Apollos hand anymore.

Apollo wrenched his wrist out of Sonics grasp, then reached towards him, his hand glowing once more. "I should have killed before I talked. But that's a mistake I won't make again," he said. Then he stopped, seeing the rucksack on Sonics back. A smile spread across his face, and the pale light surrounding his hand disappeared.

"On second thought, I think I'll just... take these," he said. He removed the rucksack from Sonics back. "It'll be more gratifying to watch this entire world destroy itself than just kill you," he said.

Sonic tried to get up, but Apollo lifted one foot and slammed it into his back, knocking him down again.

Suddenly the elevator doors slid open and the five security guards rushed out, their guns in hand.

"You, drop your weapon! Get down on the ground _now_!" shouted one guard, aiming his pistol at Apollos chest.

Apollo pulled the rucksack over his shoulders and stepped forward, raising his hands in the air and letting his pistol fall to the floor.

Two of the guards stepped forward, one with his gun trained on Apollo and the other reaching for a set of handcuffs at his belt.

"Now get down–" The guard never finished his sentence. Both of Apollos fists shot forward. One smashed one guards head open like a ripe watermelon, and the other punched straight through the other guards stomach, breaking his spine.

The other three guards opened fire. Apollo swung the body of one guard up as a shield against the bullets, then summoned all of his strength and hurled the other guard upwards, smashing him into the ceiling.

Apollo hunched his shoulders, bent his knees, then shot into the air with a single, powerful jump. He crashed through the weak area of the ceiling, smashing all the way up to the first floor.

Two of the other guards rushed back into the elevator, while the last hurried to check on Sonic and his fallen comrades.

Sonic felt like he was floating in warm, dark waters. He was in a state of semi-consciousness, able to hear, feel, and slightly see, but unable to move. He wanted to get up, to follow Apollo, or at least scream at him in rage.

But he couldn't.

As he slipped into unconsciousness, Sonic realized something: he was trapped once again in this alien dimension, drawing it and his own home closer and closer to their doom. He was lost in the darkness, and he was very much alone.

__

To Be Continued...

--

**A/N:** Aha, you probably saw that coming but... here's the cliff-hanger ending of part 2. Sorry, I couldn't think of a better conclusion.

I had my doubts about whether or not to do it, but I've come to the decision to just write part 3 and get it done so I can move on to other stories. There's a poll on my profile about which story you guys would like to see me write next. If you even care, I'd appreciate it if you voted. Thanks a bunch.

Well I thank everyone who stuck with this story from beginning to end, or halfway to the end, or anyone else who just dropped off a review. I appreciate it a lot.

Until next time.


End file.
